Mauricio Pochettino may have thrown subtle Chelsea transfer hints with back-to-back decisions.
Mykhailo Mudryk has not been used as a substitute in back-to-back meetings at Aston Villa and Crystal Palace, as the Chelsea winger struggles to make an impression.
Although Mykhailo Mudryk has played 1,244 minutes for Chelsea this season, the club is concerned about his progress and development. The £87 million price was bandied about when the Ukrainian joined Chelsea in January 2023, but football.london knows that conditions will need to be triggered before the figure can be reached.
Chelsea will pay Shakhtar Donetsk about £60 million over the life of his eight-year deal at Stamford Bridge due to the club’s use of amortization. In any case, it was – and still to be – a large sum of money to spend for Mudryk, who has yet to prove his worth at Stamford Bridge in the 13 months since his arrival.
This season, the 23-year-old has experienced two brief flashes of brilliance. He scored his first Premier League goal for Chelsea in a victory at Fulham before scoring again against Arsenal just over a fortnight later.
Then, in December, Mudryk scored a late goal to help Chelsea reach the Carabao Cup semi-finals, before scoring against Crystal Palace in the Premier League eight days later. However, the Ukrainian response has not been sufficient.
“He’s a fantastic guy and such a nice person,” Pochettino told Mudryk in December. “He is really authentic and sincere. One thing I can tell you is that he is a really honest, trustworthy, sincere, and spontaneous person. Naturally, I trust him as a person.
“Then, as a player, he realizes he needs to keep progressing. He is still young, and he will progress since he has the potential. He’s a player who is progressing well, which makes us very delighted.
