Speaking on the Ranks FC Podcast, Dean Jones has been discussing Arsenal and their pursuit of Mykhaylo Mudryk.
The Ukrainian winger was the subject of a bid from the Gunners this week as the north London club had a £55m offer for the attacker knocked back by Shakhtar Donetsk.
Jones has kept abreast of this situation throughout, and he says that despite being knocked back, Arsenal do feel confident about making this move happen, stating that the Gunners are prepared to pay over £70m for this player.
Arsenal confident
Jones shared what he knows about Mudryk and Arsenal.
“You have to understand how Shakhtar are looking at this. Look at the recent market and two recent deals for players who are playing similar roles in big teams and you see Darwin Nunez for £85m and Antony for £85m to Liverpool and Manchester United,” Jones said.
“Shakhtar are going to see that as the marker, £85m is the marker for a player of that significance to your team. I don’t know if Arsenal will go that high. I don’t think they have any expectation to go into the 80s here. They had an expectation to get into the 70s for sure, but this is the big conundrum for Arsenal, will they get this player for any cost or will they limit it? I think they’ll limit it personally.
“There is a confidence in the club that they’ll get the player, just look at himself, he’s desperate to get there, he’s posting on social media, he’s so desperate to get there.”
Don’t overpay
Arsenal may be determined to get Mudryk, but they can’t fall into the trap of overpaying for the winger.
Shelling out over £70m for a player who has never kicked a ball in one of Europe’s top five leagues is a risk to say the least, and on top of that, he’s barely even played for Shakhtar, failing to make more than 20 appearances in a season before this campaign.
Arsenal need to tread carefully here.
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