Journalist Fabrizio Romano has claimed that Arsenal won’t have to pay the full price tag for main transfer target Mykhaylo Mudryk.
This news comes after reports emerged about the Gunners lodging their first official bid for the Ukrainian winger, which was said to be around £53m including add-ons, but it was seemingly rejected out of hand by Shakhtar Donetsk.
While Arsenal are said to have Mudryk as a big-money target going into January, his original price tag of £85m was always going to be on the expensive side, and that may be why Shakhtar are said to be willing negotiators.
And Romano has claimed on The House of Champions YouTube channel that the talk within the industry is that Shakhtar are perhaps open to reducing their asking price for the Gunners.
He said: “In public, they state they want a fee similar to Antony, Jack Grealish – so around €100m for Mykhaylo Mudryk.
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“The feeling of people in the industry [is] that in the end, Shakhtar could accept less than this, but it depends on the structure of the deal, depends on the fixed fee, depends on how easy the add-ons [will be achieved], so there are many details into this kind of negotiation between Arsenal and Shakhtar.”
TIF Thoughts on Arsenal’s pursuit of Mudryk…
It’s very clear that Arsenal are keen to land Mudryk, and what’s becoming even more apparent is that the Ukrainian winger is desperate for a move to the Emirates Stadium, as he recently posted a photo of him watching their Boxing Day win against West Ham United.
However, Shakhtar will likely have to come down considerably, to accept a deal that includes a lot more add-ons and staggered payments from Arsenal to avoid this becoming the saga of the transfer window.
Arsenal will perhaps be desperate to land Mduryk given the injury to Gabriel Jesus, as the winger would add a goal threat having already netted 10 times this season, while Mikel Arteta may well believe he’s the man to carry them to Premier League glory.