Ian Wright admits Arsenal cannot hope to match the vast sums of money high-rolling Chelsea are forking out after the Gunners missed out on the signing of Mykhaylo Mudryk.
The Ukraine winger, 22, officially joined the Blues from Shakhtar Donetsk on Sunday afternoon in a deal worth £87million. He has signed an eight-and-a-half year contract and is expected to earn more than £100,000 per week with the Premier League giants.
Arsenal had been winning the race to sign Mudryk and submitted multiple bids to prise him from his homeland, with Mikel Arteta pushing to bring him to Emirates Stadium. However, Chelsea swooped in to beat their London rivals to the signing, stumping up an initial fee of £62million and tabling a mammoth contract to get the deal over the line, with Mudryk able to make his debut against Liverpool on Saturday.
Highbury legend Wright admits it is “unfortunate” to see Arsenal’s priority target move to their rivals but insists there was no chance of his former side equalling Chelsea’s lavish outlay. “It’s one of those, unfortunately, that we may have missed out on,” Wright told Premier League Productions of Mudryk’s move to Stamford Bridge.
“But Arsenal cannot, cannot compete with what Chelsea can offer a player like that. We’ve seen he was obviously desperate to come to Arsenal, it was quite nice to see and Arsenal fans were quite excited about it.
“But what’s happening at Arsenal is that they’re on a road to doing something and building something and they see Mudryk as a player who can come in, the way he plays, his attitude, the way he is, would’ve been perfect for the group. But the money they (Shakhtar) want, Arsenal can’t go there, so you have to move on to the next person simply because we cannot compete with Chelsea.”
Will Mykhaylo Mudryk live up to his price tag at Chelsea? Have your say in the comments!
(
Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
Mudryk’s move to west London brings with it a huge pay hike for the youngster, who was earning a four-figure sum per week with Shakhtar. The Gunners were prepared to pay him £50,000 per week but Chelsea blew them out of the water with their willingness to fork out over £100,000 per week, increasing the player’s salary by many times over.
“You know what it’s like with people around him,” Wright added on Mudryk. “He was earning £3,000, £4,000 a week before, he was taking a massive leap to £50,000 a week [with Arsenal], allegedly, and then Chelsea are giving him three times as much.
“You’re talking about a club is going to sell him because they want the money, the management team around him want to get paid. A seven-year deal, no one turns that down.”
