Shakhtar chief claims three Arsenal men were calling Mudryk ‘almost every day’ in transfer race

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Shakhtar Donetsk CEO Sergei Palkin has indicated that Arsenal spoke to Mykhailo Mudryk months before actually contacting the club.

Arsenal were left rocked over the weekend as Shakhtar winger Mudryk joined Chelsea.

The Gunners had been chasing Mudryk for months, even going back to the latter stages of the summer transfer window.

Months of speculation appeared to be heading towards a deal but Arsenal were hijacked over the weekend.

Chelsea swooped in to sign Mudryk, agreeing to pay Shakhtar’s huge £88million asking price when Arsenal’s wouldn’t.

Mudryk was presented as a Chelsea player on Sunday afternoon and Arsenal must now go back to the drawing board in search of a new winger.

Shakhtar CEO claims Arsenal made sneaky Mykhailo Mudryk approaches

Many are still wondering just how Mudryk has ended up at Chelsea after months of rumours surrounding a move to Arsenal.

Mudryk even appeared to be doing some rather public flirting with Arsenal as he kept showing photos of himself watching Gunners games.

Arsenal wouldn’t match Chelsea’s offer and Shakhtar CEO Sergei Palkin has now offered his view on the move to North London breaking down.

Palkin has told The Athletic that the real reason everybody was talking about a move to Arsenal was because the Gunners contacted Mudryk months before speaking to Shakhtar.

Palkin feels that Arsenal piled pressure on Mudryk to join them by having the likes of Mikel Arteta, Edu and even Oleksandr Zinchenko speak to him every few days.

The Shakhtar chief highlighted that Chelsea called him in December to ask if they could contact Mudryk, which they have no problem with ahead of the January window.

Palkin suggested that Mudryk to Arsenal was an ‘outside visual impression’ and was never actually that close because the Gunners couldn’t close negotiations.

“From my point of view, (this) is why everybody talked about Arsenal. It is because Arsenal contacted the player almost one and a half months before they contacted us,” said Palkin. “Can you imagine, for example, to have Mikel Arteta, Oleksandr Zinchenko and the sporting director calling you, to have Arsenal calling you almost every day, every two days, every three days? You can want or not want the move but you follow this kind of reception and contacts.”

“If you talk about Chelsea, they called me at the end of December and asked if they can contact Mudryk because they are interested in him and want to talk with him. I said, ‘No problem, you can contact him’. The first time they contacted him was around the end of December or the start of January. They contacted the player and the agent of the player and they met the financial conditions. Therefore, why did many people around it have the impression that Mudryk was going to Arsenal? It is because Arsenal contacted him and then Mudryk started to watch some games of Arsenal. But negotiations are negotiations. When you didn’t close everything, when you did not (close) the last dot, then you cannot finish the deal. Therefore it was just an outside visual impression that Mudryk is close to Arsenal,” he added.