Chelsea are ready to pay €100million to sign Mykhaylo Mudryk (Picture: Getty)
Chelsea chiefs have flown to Poland in order to launch a late bid to hijack Mykhailo Mudryk’s much anticipated transfer to Arsenal.
Reports earlier on Saturday claimed Arsenal’s sporting director, Edu, had also jetted in to Poland to iron out the finer details of the Ukraine international’s move to north London.
Chelsea’s interest in Mudryk was understood to have been ‘exploratory’ with the club keen to play down their interest in the 22-year-old, despite the presence of Shakhtar Donetsk’s technical director, Darijo Srna, at Stamford Bridge for last week’s Premier League game against Manchester City.
Arsenal have already seen two bids rejected for the highly-rated winger who has dropped regular hints on social media that his preference would be a move to the Premier League leaders.
The Gunners’ most recent offer worth £62m before add-ons, which would take the deal closer to £70m, was thought to be enough to conclude a lengthy saga with Mikel Arteta hopeful Mudryk would be able to make his debut against Manchester United next week.
Chelsea, however, according to Fabrizio Romano, are looking to blow Arsenal out of the water and are prepared to submit a €100m bid that would match Shakhtar’s valuation.
Transfer specialist Romano insists that Arsenal have always led the race and have a long-standing agreement with the player, but who transfer is reaching a critical stage with Chelsea intent on winning the race.
Todd Boehly has already sanctioned deals this month for Benoit Badiashile, Andrey Santos, David Fofana and Joao Felix as he attempt to oversee a seismic overhaul of Graham Potter’s squad.
The American is understood to retain full faith in the Brighton manager, despite a run of just two wins from the last 10 games in all competitions that has left the Blues languishing in mid-table and out of both domestic cup competitions.
While the focus has been on recruitment, Chelsea are preparing to offload a number of expensive flops and eradicate player power from a dressing room which has forced out several of Potter’s predecessors.
Christian Pulisic, Hakim Ziyech and Kai Havertz, signed for a combined total of nearly £200m, have all flattered to deceive under the current and previous regime and are likely to be deemed surplus to requirements.
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The Gunners thought they were closing in on their No.1 target;.
