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Chelsea are said to be considering offloading one of their valuable assets.
Chelsea face an interesting situation with Mykhaylo Mudryk, with the winger having failed to impress up to this point. The winger arrived at Stamford Bridge on a deal worth up to £90million, but his performances have not matched that price tag.
That’s not necessarily Mudryk’s fault in that the Ukrainian did not have a say in his fee, but his struggles to adapt may have put Chelsea in a tricky situation. The Blues must now weigh up whether to keep the 23-year-old and give him more time to develop into the player they thought he would be, or cut their losses and look to make up a significant chunk of the fee they paid - albeit nowhere near the full amount.
In the case of the latter, Chelsea need no reminding that they risk making a Mo Salah-level mistake if Mudryk becomes a £90million player elsewhere. Nevertheless, there are suggestions Mudryk could be offloaded in the near future. Former Manchester United chief Mick Brown told Football Insider: “I hear they’re keen to move him on in January. I think they’ve got the makings of a very good team at Chelsea, but he isn’t likely to be a part of that.
“There isn’t space for him in the team at the moment and I don’t think Maresca has been particularly impressed by him so far. But I don’t think they’re likely to make a profit on him or even get their money back, let’s put it that way. He’s on a big contract too, which they’d like to get off the books if they can. That’s the problem they’ve got themselves into, though. Which clubs will be willing to pay his wages and spend a big chunk of money on signing him?
“I think, if clubs do make a move for him, they’ll probably look to pay around £30million at most. So Chelsea might have to bite the bullet and accept that if they really want to move him on. They’ll have to cut their losses.”
What Maresca has said
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca still believes in Mudryk, or at least the public side of him does. “We're working with him and all the wingers," said the Italian in late October. "They need to arrive inside the box in the position where Misha [Mudryk] scored."He's struggled to arrive there, now he's started to. That's where we're going to score goals.
“We want the best for Misha - since day one we've tried to help him."Probably he's one of the guys that the learning process is more slow compared to the rest. But he's improving. I'm sure that slowly, slowly we're going to arrive where he will score more goals and to be more important for us." Maresca is one of the few managers who bases his system around wingers, and that’s something Mudryk will surely benefit from if he gets the time to continue to develop at Stamford Bridge.
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