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Arsenal 'would have to pay in excess of £43m for Mykhaylo Mudryk'

By Matt Law, Football Editor | 07 September 2022

Arsenal 'would have to pay in excess of £43m for Mudryk'

Arsenal would have to bid in excess of £43m to stand a chance of signing Shakhtar Donetsk's Mykhaylo Mudryk, according to a report.

Arsenal would reportedly have to make a bid in excess of €50m (£43m) to stand a chance of signing Shakhtar Donetsk attacker Mykhaylo Mudryk.

The Gunners were strongly linked with the 21-year-old in the latter stages of the summer transfer window and are believed to have seen at least one offer in the region of €30m (£25.9m) turned down.

According to Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano, Shakhtar are unlikely to consider offers of under €50m (£43m) for a player regarded as a 'potential star of the future'.

Brentford have also been credited with an interest in the left-sided attacker, who played a vital role in his team's Champions League victory over RB Leipzig on Tuesday night.

Mudryk scored and provided two assists in the 4-1 win in Germany, while he has also contributed one assist in three league appearances this season.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta on August 13, 2022 © Reuters

In total, the Ukraine international has represented Shakhtar on 30 occasions, contributing three goals and 12 assists in the process.

Nicolas Pepe's loan departure to Nice in the latter stages of the summer transfer window led to Arsenal targeting a new winger, but they were unable to convince the Ukrainian side to let Mudryk depart.

Yevhen Levchenko, who is a former Ukraine international, took to Twitter earlier this month to question the youngster's high price tag.

"With all my love for Mudrik's football talent, this player cannot be worth 30 million euros at this stage, and 50 even more so. Our club should learn to soberly evaluate its players, and not take away their opportunities for growth. And this applies to most of our clubs," he wrote on his official social media account.

Arsenal also attempted to sign Douglas Luiz from Aston Villa in the latter stages of the summer transfer window but ultimately ran out of time.

Aston Villa's Douglas Luiz celebrates scoring their fourth goal on July 9, 2022 © Reuters

"We had a lot of things still to do in the squad. The club has done a phenomenal job of bringing in players that we wanted," Gunners boss Mikel Arteta told reporters when asked about the club's late push for additions.

"Unfortunately, in the last 72 hours, Thomas [Partey] and Mohamed [Elneny] got injured, and we had to react in the market. We tried, and at the end of the day, we have to bring in the players we feel are right, but we didn't manage to do it."

Arsenal have made an impressive start to the 2022-23 Premier League campaign, winning five of their opening six matches to top the table with 15 points.

The Gunners suffered a 3-1 defeat at Manchester United on Sunday afternoon, though, and have currently turned their attention away from the league, as they prepare for their Europa League opener against FC Zurich on Thursday.