‘We think we are good enough’ – Poyet hints Chelsea signing isn’t up to standard and needs to adapt

Former Chelsea man Gus Poyet has admitted he “made a mistake” in thinking Mykhaylo Mudryk was an “outstanding signing” as he feels he needs “time to adapt”.

The Blues have not been shy in spending large amounts of money over the past few transfer windows. Last season, they spent more than £500million, and 16 players headed through the door.

One of those was Mudryk, who joined from Shakhtar Donetsk for a reported £88.5million.

Former Blues man Poyet thought that was a great piece of business at the time, but after seeing half a season of Mudryk at Stamford Bridge, he’s changed his mind.

“Last year I made a mistake, and I’m not afraid of saying it,” he said, quoted by Metro.

“When Chelsea signed Mykhailo Mudryk, I thought it was outstanding.”

However, in hindsight, and with the experience of having joined a Premier League side from abroad, he admits he was hasty with his judgement, and understands Mudryk may need more time to come good.

“I thought, “wow, what an unbelievable player!” Then I remembered what happened to me and loads of other foreign players when they first move to England – everyone is different and we all need different amounts of time to adapt to football.

“We think we are good enough and say, “tomorrow I will play and be the best player on the pitch”, but football is different and life is different – we all adapt in our own times.

“I think new players and foreign players – including myself when I played – they need to be careful, because I know what can happen to all of them.”

Mudryk has been directly involved in just two goals in his 17 games as a Chelsea player. While that’s by no means the greatest of starts, as Poyet says, he may simply need more time to adapt to the country.

Indeed, there’s clearly a good player in there. While it’s not close to the standard of the Premier League, the forward scored seven goals and provided six assists in 12 games in the Ukrainian Premier Liga before moving to England.

He’d also put in some great performances in European competition, scoring three times and assisting twice in six games in last season’s Champions League for Shakhtar.

As such, he’s shown he’s a capable player, he just needs the time to get up to the level he can play at.

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