Former head coach of Dynamo Kyiv and the Ukrainian national team Jozsef Sabo spoke about the situation with a possible transfer of Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Mykhailo Mudrik to Arsenal London.
Jozsef Szabo- Negotiations about Mudrik on his transfer fee and related issues went on for a very long time, Jozef Jozefovich begins. — The day before, I read that an agreement had finally been reached on the amount of compensation for the player. However, this is today. And tomorrow it is quite possible that another contender, Chelsea, will join this topic and will be ready to pay more.
You know, now that the war is going on, it doesn't look very nice that Shakhtar is trading. God forbid that the Donetsk club still sells the player, and Mudrik himself manages to harmoniously integrate into the new team. After all, the conditions in the English Premier League are completely different than ours. If he ends up at Arsenal, then I don’t even know how he will show himself in this club. Indeed, as part of the Gunners, collections from different countries play - in particular, Brazil, Argentina. Michael will be very hard.
So that it does not happen like it has already happened with some of our leading players abroad: he was bought, and he is sitting on the bench. And when a football player doesn't play, it's bad.
Take, say, Malinovsky. He played normally at Atalanta, but something was wrong with the head coach. Ruslan was not the first football player who, for this reason, was forced to leave the Italian club - there are already three or four of them. None of them wants to work with Gasperini. As for Malinovsky himself, I don’t know why he went specifically to France. However, I hope that in this country our legionnaire will be able to prove himself from the best side. Malinovsky is a good player, and I hope that, unlike at Atalanta, he will not be on the bench at Marseille. God grant that Ruslan will continue to grow in his skill.
- In the fall, you said that it would be good for Shakhtar to sell Mudrik for at least 25-30 million euros. According to English sources, Arsenal are ready to pay 60 million pounds sterling for him, which is about 68 million euros.
- This is some kind of madness! I don’t even know how to explain it: either today money is no longer counted, or something else. There are so many rich people, billionaires, that they don't have this money! They can give as much as they want for a football player! These are the times...
- Do you think Shakhtar's international image could play a decisive role in the epic with Mudrik?
- The fact is that Mikhail is a young guy who has all the necessary data for a football player - both speed and ability to control the ball. The British buy it for a reason - they carefully watched it even when Shakhtar played in the Champions League.
Plus, he's young. Here at Arsenal they thought: we need to pay now, because when we sell Mudrik in a year or two, he will already cost 100-150 million euros. This is business. People working in football never buy a player just for the sake of it - they go to matches with his participation, carefully observe his actions and certain features in the game. We watched it once, then another, both in home matches and away — and only then are they determined on the acquisition.
Mudrik is a good fellow, he works well both in defense and in attack, where he can easily get away from guardians in the operational space. Even Valery Borzov has nothing to do there (smiling)! In addition, Mudrik has a punch, and even a punch. So he is willingly taken to the London club. They know that the guy is promising and will grow.
Vyacheslav Kulchitsky
