Arsenal have second chance at £55m Mudryk alternative as Barcelona ‘ready’ to sell trio

Arsenal have been handed a second chance to land one of their top summer targets with Barcelona reportedly ‘ready to consider offers’ for three forwards in January.

Arsenal’s proposed summer move for the former Leeds star was hijacked by Chelsea, who were then hijacked by Barcelona to sign the winger in a £55m deal.

But things haven’t quite gone according to plan for Raphinha, who has started just seven of 16 La Liga games this season as he has struggled to displace Ousmane Dembele from Xavi’s first-choice XI.

And according to El Chiringuito reporter Jose Alvarez, Barcelona are prepared to sell Raphinha in January, along with Ferran Torres and Ansu Fati.

Chelsea came even closer to signing Raphinha than Arsenal having agreed a transfer fee with Leeds, but their frustration at the Brazilian’s lack of desire to negotiate, paired with their loan capture of Joao Felix, is likely to rule them out of the running.

Raphinha could be an alternative to Mykhaylo Mudryk, who is thought to be Mikel Arteta’s preferred forward arrival in January.

Arsenal and Chelsea have been battling it out over the last couple of weeks for Mudryk with 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.

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.

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