Report: Shakhtar CEO reveals how Chelsea beat Arsenal to Mudryk signing

Sergei Palkin reveals why Mykhailo Mudryk chose Chelsea over Arsenal

According to an Exclusive at The Athletic (subscription required), Shakhtar Donetsk CEO Sergei Palkin outlined the reason why Mykhailo Mudryk chose to sign for Chelsea instead of Arsenal.

The Blues announced the signature of the Ukrainian winger on Sunday during the game against Crystal Palace. The fee is believed to be around £88.5m, with a contract of seven-and-a-half years with an option to extend that by a year.

In the past few months, it was widely reported that Arsenal held a keen interest in the 22-year-old and were leading the race to sign him. But, Chelsea came and gazumped the Gunners with their offer to sign the player.

From the outlines mentioned in the tweet above, or after listening to that short video, it is clear that Arsenal were the frontrunner because of the number of contacts made. However, it seems like the bonuses and the timing of the payment were better from Chelsea.

As mentioned in the report, Palkin admitted that Arsenal were close to signing the winger before Chelsea came to Turkey and started progressing with the deal.

The Shakhtar CEO also pointed out that the Gunners contacted the player weeks before meeting with the club. On the contrary, Chelsea took permission from the Ukrainian club in December to talk to Mudryk for a possible deal.

Palkin also talked about how nicely the Chelsea project was explained to them and the player. He confirmed that the add-ons in the deal were achievable and that there are no Ballon d’Or bonuses involved.

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Reading between the lines, it does look like the Blues were cleverer than Arsenal in the pursuit of this deal. Now, we can hope that the money spent on the player is well worth it for years to come.