Mudryk ‘denies the veracity’ of Chelsea snub with Arsenal ‘close’ to full agreement

Mykhaylo Mudryk has denied he sent a transfer message to Chelsea as Arsenal close in on a full agreement with Shakhtar Donetsk, according to reports.

The Gunners and the Blues have been battling it out over the last couple of weeks for Mudryk with Mikel Arteta’s side still appearing to lead the race for the Shakhtar Donetsk winger.

Arsenal have had two bids turned down by Shakhtar with the latest offer believed to be around £62m (€70m), which still falls some way short of the Ukrainian side’s public valuation of €100m.

Chelsea are reportedly yet to make a concrete offer, with the Blues hoping that they can find out if the winger has any real interest in joining them before putting their cards on the table.

There has been speculation that Mudryk would prefer a move to Premier League leaders Arsenal over Chelsea with a screenshot recently appearing on Instagram of Mudryk telling a follower that he doesn’t want to move to Stamford Bridge.

His follower asked: “Mudryk, are you going to Chelsea?” To which the Ukraine international replied “no” with white and red heart emojis.

But Mudryk has apparently ‘denied the veracity of the published correspondence’ in a conversation with Ukrainian website Tribuna.

Despite that, several journalists have said that Mudryk wants the move to Arsenal and now Sport Arena claim that the Gunners and Shakhtar are ‘close to agreeing on the full amount of the transfer’.

It is understood that the main sticking point has been ‘discussing the ratio of guaranteed payment and bonuses’ with the north London club wanting ‘bonuses to be at least 30% of the entire transfer fee’ while ‘Shakhtar wants bonuses to be a maximum of 20%.’

Mudryk ‘has already agreed with the London club [Arsenal] on the terms of a personal contract’ and the report is confident a deal will be finalised soon.

But former Premier League striker Stan Collymore “wouldn’t be surprised” to see Mudryk sign for Chelsea over Arsenal with Todd Boehly’s club offering a “more attractive project”.

Collymore told Caught Offside: “I know some fans will argue that considering where both clubs are at the minute, if he were to choose the Blues over the Gunners, it’ll only be for the money.

“And that may well be true, but for me, Chelsea is still the more attractive project. If [Todd] Boehly can sell Chelsea’s future to Mudryk then that’s the more alluring option.

“If I had the choice, I’d choose Chelsea over Arsenal and that’s not me dismissing the good work Mikel Arteta and Arsenal are doing, but I just think over a three or four-year period, the Blues are the better project and the club more likely to consistently compete for silverware.

“So all that being considered, I wouldn’t be surprised if Mudryk ended up at Stamford Bridge.”

READ MORE: Are Shakhtar pulling Arsenal and Chelsea’s pants down over Mykhaylo Mudryk?