The winger had been desperate to join Arsenal but will sign for the Blues (Picture: Getty)

Chelsea have agreed a club-record deal with Shakhtar Donetsk for Mykhailo Mudryk and the winger has already verbally agreed a seven-year contract, according to reports.

For months, Arsenal had appeared to be the favourites to land the highly rated 22-year-old while the player himself was desperate to move to the Emirates, posting a string of messages about the Gunners on social media.

But on Saturday afternoon it emerged that senior Chelsea officials had flown to the continent in an effort to hijack Arsenal’s deal and have now won the race for his signature.

According to The Athletic, the west London club held face-to-face talks with their Shakhtar counterparts and agreed on a deal worth €110million.

That is far more than Arsenal were prepared to go to, while Chelsea are also prepared to pay a larger portion of the fee up front.

The Blues will pay €70million (£62m) now, with a further €40m (£35m) in add-ons, while Mudryk himself has already given the greenlight for the deal to happen.

Amid the speculation, a brief statement from Shakhtar read: ‘FC Shakhtar president Rinat Akhmetov and Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali discussed Mykhailo Mudryk’s transfer to Chelsea FC today. Parties are very close to agree on player’s transfer to the club.’

There had been suggestions the attacker might be holding out for Arsenal and only Arsenal, but Chelsea have blown the Gunners out of the water in negotiations for the player too.

They have offered Mudryk a much more lucrative salary and a longer contract, with the Ukrainian ready to sign a seven-year deal; Arsenal, by contrast, had only been offering a five-year contract.

Mudryk has netted 10 goals this season in all competitions (Picture: Getty)

Transfer guru Fabrizio Romano adds that Mudryk will now fly to London in the next few hours before undergoing a medical on Sunday and putting pen to paper on his contract.

Reports initially claimed that Chelsea officials had flown to Poland – where Shakhtar are based – to secure a deal, but the delegation actually travelled to Turkey where the Ukrainian side are holding a warm-weather training camp.

Director of global talent and transfers Paul Winstanley was among the delegation, with the trip also allowing Chelsea to speak directly to Mudryk about a move.

The winger was made aware of Chelsea’s growing interest in the last few days by Shakhtar’s hierarchy and despite very publicly pining for a move to Arsenal, he is now open to moving to Stamford Bridge instead.

Arsenal are not necessarily out of the running to sign the Ukrainian, but they will need to match Chelsea’s offer and are unlikely to be willing to pay such a large fee (£62m) up front.

The fee is an astonishing amount for Chelsea to commit to given that Mudryk has only played 29 times in the Ukrainian top flight for Shakhtar, while he only has eight caps for his nation and is yet to score.

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