Revealed: Mykhailo Mudryk to earn 97k-a-week as he picks Chelsea over Arsenal

Mykhailo Mudryk’s move to Chelsea was fueled by their project and not money, contrary to what was reported last week when the deal was confirmed.

It was known to the public that Arsenal have been on Mykhailo Mudryk’s case, and the player himself was practically sending the “come and get me plea” to the London club.

But, just as Arsenal and Shakhtar Donetsk continue to drag over transfer fees and payment plans, Chelsea quickly swoop in and got the deal done in a few days.

The manner and speed at which Chelsea got the deal done raised a few eyebrows, with many claiming they overpaid, and others saying they dangled the money in front of Mykhailo Mudryk.

But none of the claims is correct, Chelsea didn’t pay more money than what Arsenal wanted to pay, and neither did they pay a great weekly wage as assumed.

According to Shakhtar Donetsk CEO Sergei Palkin, he approved of Mykhailo Mudryk’s to Chelsea because of how they will pay the agreed fee.

He also mentioned in the interview with The Athletic that both clubs offered to pay the same amount of money.

“I realised two days ago [Saturday] when Chelsea arrived here – the co-owner Behdad Eghbali and [director of global talent and transfers] Paul Winstanley. They came to Antalya in Turkey [where Shakhtar have been at a training camp],” he said.

“Before Chelsea arrived, I did not know they were close, because I communicated with Arsenal in the same way as I had with Chelsea. Even I can tell you more: I met Arsenal more times than Chelsea. Therefore, before this last meeting, Arsenal was close, or a little bit closer to this deal than Chelsea.

“If you don’t count telephone conversations, it was three times [he met with Arsenal].

“From my point of view, [the social media posts] is why everybody talked about Arsenal. It is because Arsenal contacted the player almost one and a half months before they contacted us. Can you imagine, for example, to have Mikel Arteta, Oleksandr Zinchenko, and the sporting director calling you, to have Arsenal calling you almost every day, every two days, every three days? You can want or not want the move but you follow this kind of reception and contacts.

“If you talk about Chelsea, they called me at the end of December and asked if they can contact Mudryk because they are interested in him and want to talk with him. I said, ‘No problem, you can contact him’. The first time they contacted him was around the end of December or the start of January. They contacted the player and the agent of the player and they met the financial conditions.

“Therefore, why did many people around it have the impression that Mudryk was going to Arsenal? It is because Arsenal contacted him and then Mudryk started to watch some games of Arsenal. But negotiations are negotiations. When you didn’t close everything, when you did not [close] the last dot, then you cannot finish the deal. Therefore it was just an outside visual impression that Mudryk is close to Arsenal.”

“Overall, [their transfer offers were] the same. Not approximately the same – it was the same figure. The fixed part, the variable part, and bonuses. But if you look inside the fixed part and bonuses, it was completely different,” he added.”

With the claims of Chelsea overpaying out of the way, the other claim by people was Chelsea paying exorbitant weekly wages.

This is also untrue according to The Athletic, he is only on £97,000 a week at Chelsea, which is less than what players such as Hudson Odoi and Loftus Cheek earn at the club.