Former Arsenal man Paul Merson believes his old club will move for Barcelona’s Raphinha after they missed out on Mykhaylo Mudryk.
In a shocking turn of events for Arsenal and Arsenal fans, Chelsea upstaged the North London club to broker a deal with Shakhtar Donetsk for the transfer of 22-year-old winger Mykhaylo Mudryk. The move was made official during the Blues’ 1 – 0 win over Crystal Palace on Sunday in the Premier League.
Mudryk was present at the game where he watched his new teammates from the stands, but it is understood that he had put pen to paper earlier and that the clubs were going through final details, hence the official announcement being made during the game.
Chelsea are understood to have paid Shakhtar’s asking price of £88.5 million plus bonuses for the young winger, making him their fifth official signing of the January transfer window. He joins Benoit Badiashile, David Fofana and Andrey Santos and João Felix, who came in on loan from Atlético de Madrid.
Arsenal, meanwhile, have been forced to turn their attention elsewhere after the move they had been sounding out for the better part of last season and this season fell through. Reports claim that they intend to now make a move for former Leeds United man Raphinha, who now plies his trade with Barcelona.
Arsenal suffered a similar fate with Raphinha in the summer when Barcelona signed the player while they were reported to be in negotiations. Unlike Mudryk, however, Raphinha leaned more towards a Barcelona move, which made it an easier pull for the Gunners to swallow.
Merson is of the opinion that the reports make sense and feels his old club should try again for the 26-year-old Brazilian.
“They will be very disappointed, of course they will,” Merson said on Sky Sports about Arsenal’s failure to sign Mudryk.
“They have been chasing him for a couple of weeks, it’s all been Arsenal talk, will they pay enough, will they go a little bit more. Then Chelsea have come from absolutely nowhere and blown Arsenal out of the water and that is what it is like.”
Then he added: “Now they have got to regroup again. Surely they will have had a couple of other players in the pipeline, surely they haven’t put all their eggs into one basket. I think they might go for Raphinha at Barcelona. Barcelona have still got to settle their books.”
Merson also noted that Arsenal need to be resolute in their financials as it emerged that Chelsea will be paying Mudryk double of what they offered.
“He is probably getting more money at Chelsea. He is probably getting bigger wages,” Merson said.
“If Arsenal then go, “right we will give you those wages”, how do you think those players are going to react? It is a happy dressing room at the moment, if you start bringing in players and giving them 200, 300 grand, players start getting unsettled.
“You are better off not rocking the boat. These chances do not come along too often. They are top of the league, you have got to seize the moment and you don’t want to ruin that.”
