-Shakhtar are in huge financial trouble. They have almost no revenues at this point, FIFA completely fucked them last summer by declaring that all their foreign players could leave on loan for free, and they reportedly have a lot of transfer debt they owe other clubs. They are owned by a wealthy oligarch but he has much bigger problems on his hands, like Russia taking over or bombing the shit out of half his businesses.
-They can’t even know for sure whether they will be able to complete their domestic season, with the unpredictability of the war. Probably they can but who really knows. What if Russia starts targeting sports facilities with their missile strikes?
-Now that CL group stage is done, Mudryk has very little opportunity to increase his value. Nobody will care what he does in Ukrainian domestic league that has been decimated by all foreign players leaving and is like this traveling road show played all over the country in front of no fans. They are underdogs to advance past their first Europa League tie against a very good Rennes side.
That’s how you need to look into these though. There’s risk for Shakhtar involved if they decide not to sell him this window.
Lots of examples out there of a player in-demand getting lost within 6 months and then a year later he’s available for a cut price. Aouar is the biggest example. Was hot property in the summer of 2020 after his showings in the CL, Arteta was fan from his time City. He’s been shopped around every window since for cut prices around 10-20 million, and even so nobody bit.
Football moves fast. Shakhtar have found themselves a desperate Arsenal side that wants Mudryk ahead of the second half of the season where we’re trying to win the PL and EL.
It’s a perfect opportunity for them to cash in. I think they’ll do it but they’ll naturally make sure they get the best deal possible out of it.
They’ve hit the jackpot here. They know we’re desperate when we bid what we did. It’s even unfamiliar for a club like us to go this aggressive for a player before the window opened actually.
I think they’ll sell eventually. Purely guesswork here but I wouldn’t be surprised if they planted the seeds for Chelsea to jump in seeing them being desperate for signings too. They probably tried to do the same with other clubs but nobody bit yet.
Eduardo has added that the meeting is due in a few hours. I guess they’re all going to sit down with some tinnies and watch the match together. Or we’re waiting to see if we’re out of the FA Cup.
He’s a coming, Mudryk has single-handedly reduced his value by pretty much committing to one club. The player wants it, so it will happen.
