Chelsea almost confirm Mykhailo Mudryk’s arrival in £88m deal

Chelsea have all but confirmed the arrival of Shakhtar Donetsk winger Mykhailo Mudryk after posting a series of bizarrely cryptic messages on his social media channels before the move was confirmed.

The London-based side have made a conscious effort to hijack Arsenal’s mega-money move for the winger in recent days and appear close to confirming his arrival in a whopping £88million deal.

Shakhtar were also involved in the teasing of the news, sharing photos of the 22-year-old receiving a guard of honor from his team-mates and tweeting that the club are “very close” to agreeing a deal for him.

Chelsea have all but confirmed the arrival of Shakhtar Donetsk winger Mykhailo Mudryk

Shakhtar Donetsk revealed a deal that will see Mudryk join Chelsea is ‘very close’.

The west London club apparently confirmed this news that a deal is imminent by tweeting Shakhtar’s announcement

It only takes a glance at Chelsea’s Instagram page to notice a difference from her earlier post, as her bio has been deleted from the site and replaced with Mudryk’s name @mmudryk10.

The Blues also asked fans to “show love” to Mudryk on Instagram and post a picture of the player to their 37.2million followers.

Blues chiefs traveled to Poland on Saturday to hold talks with the Ukrainian club over the 22-year-old’s signing.

They also changed their Instagram bio, replacing it with Mudryk’s name on the social media platform

Chelsea asked Blues fans to show love to the 22-year-old on their Instagram account

Shakhtar, meanwhile, tweeted: “FC Shakhtar President Rinat Akhmetov and Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali today discussed Mykhailo Mudryk’s move to Chelsea FC.

“The parties are close to agreeing on the player’s transfer to the club.”

However, Chelsea were in the mood for more teasing and responded to the post with an “eye” emoji, suggesting they are more than confident a deal will be struck.

Finally, in an unusual way, the Blues shared an intriguing post on their club website which read: “Chelsea are discussing the terms of the transfer of Mykhailo Mudryk with Shakhtar Donetsk.

“Should a deal be reached between the two clubs, the Ukraine international, who can play as a winger or forward, will discuss personal terms with the Blues before a permanent transfer.”

After Sky SportsChelsea Eghbali and global transfers director Paul Winstanley withdrew Mudryk from negotiations with a medical appointment scheduled for tomorrow.

He is set to be unveiled ahead of the Blues’ game against Crystal Palace.

Mudryk had previously been linked with a move to Arsenal, with the club making three offers for the winger

The news comes just days after it was revealed the player would be heading to north London instead, after Arsenal submitted a third offer that could reach £80million for the player.

Mikel Arteta’s side are said to be Mudryk’s target of choice and the Spaniard sent Gunners fans online into a frenzy after appearing to confirm during a press conference earlier this week that a deal to land his top target for the January window has been finalised was.

Following Monday night’s FA Cup win over Oxford United, Arteta reiterated his desire to bring in attacking reinforcements as summer signing Gabriel Jesus is still unavailable on international duty at the World Cup following an injury.

Chelsea also released a statement on their club website that a deal for Mudryk was “near”.

Shakhtar shared images of Mudryk, who received the Player of the Year award, and his teammates, who congratulated him and appeared to bid him farewell

“The problem is that we only have one striker and it’s not easy to get through so many months until Gabby is back,” he said.

“But we have to get the best out of the players we have at the moment. If we can have some reinforcements, great.”

It now appears the Spaniard will have to look elsewhere for reinforcements as Chelsea are set to bring in another body to bolster his fortunes under Graham Potter.