Mudryk Chelsea, Man Utd transformation

Good morning everyone, and welcome to the latest edition of my exclusive Daily Briefing. Enjoy! 🙂

Arsenal have missed out on Mykhaylo Mudryk – so, what went wrong?

The player’s priority was Arsenal. Arsenal made a third bid on Thursday, but Chelsea’s bid on Saturday for big money and big wages for the player and this strong approach has seen them win the race.

Arsenal could not guarantee €100m for Mudryk, but this was always Shakhtar’s position. Shakhtar made it clear to Mudryk that this was their position, and so they told him that if he doesn’t accept the move to Chelsea he will not be able to move.

I think Arsenal have a very clear strategy. I’m told they don’t want to overpay or enter into crazy bidding wars. It was like that for Dusan Vlahovic, Raphinha, Lisandro Martinez… they did their best to sign Mudryk, a great bid; Chelsea decided to go really strong on it so Arsenal to respect their strategy and vision have decided to not change anything.

I think if they’re first in Premier League and changed their situation in just one year, it’s also thanks to clear ideas and vision. Of course they lost a big target and a top player but they don’t panic. I don’t want to speculate on targets right now, but for sure they will explore the market and then I’ll let you know.

Onto other possible targets, a summer move is very possible for Yunus Musah. Inter, Chelsea and Arsenal are following him closely, but then it’s still January so let’s see if some other clubs will join the race in the next months. His price was around €40m in December but let’s see in the summer, too early to say now.

Austrian Bundesliga side Sturm Graz are closing in on the loan signing of Arsenal’s third-choice goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo, now on loan at Crewe. I’ve been told the deal is now almost done. Okonkwo, doing great at Crewe with 10 clean sheets and ready for the next step.

In other news, Arsenal could be back in for Raphinha after missing out on Mudryk, according to this report from the Evening Standard.

I understand Memphis Depay will be leaving Barcelona in this transfer window. The decision has been made, he’ll try a new experience if all goes to plan. Negotiations with Atletico Madrid are ongoing. Memphis is open to joining Atleti, but it’s still not agreed between all parties.

Official, confirmed. Noah Mbamba now joins Bayer Leverkusen with immediate effect from Club Brugge on a contract valid…