Chelsea have been big spenders in the January transfer window, yet the signing of Mykhailo Mudryk will be hard to beat with the Blues landing the winger in a €100m (£88m) deal on an eight-and-a-half-year contract.
You heard that right. The 22-year-old winger has put pen to paper on a deal with Chelsea that will last until 2031 at the latest, making Mudryk one of the most secure players in all of football and leaving many supporters confused as to how such a deal was even authorised by the west London giants.
Indeed, the Premier League is no stranger to crazy contract offers. And whilst Mudryk’s with Chelsea caught many by surprise this weekend due to the sheer length, it’s far from the most shocking deal the English top-flight has seen in recent years.
Without further ado, here are our five most ridiculous contract offers in Premier League history.
Mykhailo Mudryk signs eight-and-a-half-year Chelsea contract
The main inspiration behind the list and arguably the most surprising contract offer since the turn of the decade, Mudryk put pen to paper this weekend on a contract that will go into 2031, with the Independent reporting that the winger himself will be earning £100,000-a-week.
Beating Arsenal to the signing, Mudryk is regarded by many as one of the most exciting attackers in all of Europe. However, few would be willing to sign the forward down to an eight-and-a-half-year contract given the financial implications of such a deal. Unless you’re Chelsea, of course.
New owner Todd Boehly has taken some heat from rival fans for his negotiating practices, especially with the handing of such a long contract to Mudryk. However, only time will tell how good the Ukrainian international is for Chelsea in the years to come.
Mesut Ozil signs £350,000-a-week Arsenal deal
Sometimes signing your best player down to a new contract can be a hindrance more than a smart move, and Arsenal have found this out the hard way on more than one occasion, though the £350,000-a-week contract for Mesut Ozil stands above the rest.
Signed on deadline day in January 2018, the German playmaker became, and still remains, the highest-paid player in Arsenal’s history, with Arsene Wenger going big to keep Ozil at the Emirates for was what was supposed to be the peak of his career.
As we know, though, this move turned out to be one of the worst contract decisions Arsenal ever made, with Ozil being frozen out by both Unai Emery and Mikel Arteta before the Gunners decided to terminate the midfielder’s contract last year. In total, the north London side lost £60m to the decision, as reported by Forbes.
Newcastle United hand Alan Pardew eight-year extension
Eight-year contracts are rarely seen in the Premier League, yet whilst Mudryk’s might be the most recent, the Chelsea winger is far from the most hight-profile figure to pen such a deal. Step forward, Alan Pardew.
After leading the Magpies to an incredible fifth-place finish, Newcastle awarded Pardew an eight-year contract extension in 2012, keeping the English manager at St. James Park until 2020. Yet as we know, things didn’t work out in the slightest.
Pardew was unable to reclaim a European spot in the 2012/13 season, and in December 2014, with the relationship with Newcastle fans at an all-time low, Crystal Palace appointed the Toon boss to replace Neil Warnock, with John Carver almost taking the Magpies down into relegation.
Manchester City offer Kaka £500,000-a-week
Manchester City’s latest announcement of Erling Haaland will see the superstar striker earn a reported £375,000-a-week, making the forward one of the highest-paid players in the Premier League. Yet back in 2009, the Cityzens almost broke English football in their pursuit of Kaka.
As per BBC Sport, City offered the Brazilian sensation a contract worth £500,000-a-week, a record contract offer at the time and one that would have put the Manchester giants into a whole new realm of quality.
However, the transfer collapsed, and whilst English football still hasn’t been the same since City’s financial-driven transformation to one of the biggest clubs in the sport, signing Kaka would have been something otherworldly at the time.
Harry Kane pens six-year deal at Tottenham
Pardew might have been able to get out his eight-year contract at Newcastle, but for Harry Kane at Tottenham, the striker’s six-year deal has arguably trapped the England captain at a side that are nowhere near at the level of the Premier League star.
Kane penned a six-year contract with Tottenham in 2019, and the decision has been one that has kept the attacker in north London and seemingly denied the 28-year-old from playing to his full potential elsewhere.
Manchester City were famously very intent on signing Kane last summer, though, given the length of the Tottenham star’s contract and Daniel Levy’s stern negotiation tactics, a transfer was all but impossible for the England talisman.
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