Chelsea winger Mykhailo Mudryk could have ended up at Brentford, according to the club’s owner Matthew Benham.
Chelsea signed Mudryk from Shakhtar Donetsk for an initial £62m fee back in the 2023 January transfer window.
However, after some extensive scouting, the winger nearly joined the Blues’ west London rivals Brentford instead.
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Mykhailo Mudryk’s data was amazing
The sad reality is that Brentford will be glad that they missed out on Mudryk. The 25-year-old is not currently playing football right now because of a ban, while he was struggling at Chelsea before that.
However, at Shakhtar and in the Ukraine national team set-up, Mudryk clearly did enough to come onto Brentford’s radar.
When speaking about Brentford’s data model at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, which has been shared by Men in Blazers, Benham said: “The summer that we got promoted to the Premier League, there’s actually two players who scouted like amazingly, amazingly well.
“One was Mudryk, which would have been maybe a bit complicated if we signed him, although we were very close to signing him for quite a low fee, I think, for €20m, and he eventually went, I think, for more like €80m.”
Mykhaylo Mudryk of Chelsea in action
Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
Before his ban, Mudryk was starting to show some form, especially in the Conference League.
In that competition, the Ukrainian scored three goals in four appearances. There is still no news on when he could return.
Under the rules of his current ban, Mudryk is not even allowed to train with Chelsea.
Mykhailo Mudryk’s stats at Chelsea before ban
Away from the Conference League, Mudryk has not done too much in a Chelsea shirt. He failed to score in the Premier League at all last season before being banned from playing football.
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Mudryk has scored just five goals in 53 Premier League appearances for Chelsea — really disappointing for an attacker who could have ended up costing the club almost £90m in total. There is now little chance of the Ukraine international ever meeting the conditions to trigger the add-ons Shakhtar added in his deal.
Across all competitions for the Blues, Mudryk has played 73 times and scored 10 goals. Again, a disappointing return.
Mudryk had a lot of potential, but because of reasons on and off the pitch, the former Shakhtar man has not been able to fulfil it at Stamford Bridge and may never do so.
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