IT IS fair to say that Mykhailo Mudryk hasn’t exactly set English football alight so far.
The 22-year-old winger was the subject of the fiercest tug-of-war of the January transfer window as Chelsea and Arsenal fought it out for the baby-faced Ukrainian international.
Chelsea eventually won that battle by meeting Shakhtar Donetsk’s £89million demand for a player with little more than a season of senior football under his belt.
And after seeing Bukayo Saka shine, Arsenal fans are already claiming it was a lucky escape for their club because Mudryk has been doing his best impression of the Invisible Man ever since.
Of the seven appearances he has made for his new club, he has finished on the winning side just once.
So for the majority of the sell-out Wembley crowd, this was a chance to see what all the fuss has been about.
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And 60 minutes later, they are still no wiser.
To be fair to Mudryk, he was no worse than most of his team-mates and marginally better than quite a few of them.
Yet it still wasn’t enough to spare him the embarrassment of being hooked on the hour by coach Ruslan Rotan, who only last week had called him “a diamond to be cherished.”
The former head of the Shakhtar academy Andres Carrasco Carrillo had even gone as far as to describe Mudryk as ‘a genius’ in the match day programme.
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So it was little wonder that Mudryk looked so unimpressed when the board with his number on it was held up before he had made any kind of significant contribution.
One relieved Arsenal fan said: “I have never been so glad we didn’t get a player.”
Another declared: “He’s bang average. Arsenal dodged a bullet.”
One asked: “Has he played football before he came to Chelsea?”
Another added: “Overrated is an understatement, Chelsea should phone the police as they’ve been well and truly robbed.”
Considering his match stats, Mudryk really could have no cause for complaint.
One shot off target, no key passes, one dribble, no free-kicks won and dispossessed four times.
LOTS TO PROVE
But in his defence, it has to be pointed out that Ukraine were so far below England’s level that it was almost impossible for anyone in yellow to shine.
Maybe it was the emotion of the occasion after receiving the kind of welcome to Wembley never before afforded to a visiting team.
If ever it was acceptable to wear a half-and-half scarf, this was it.
And draped in the Ukrainian flag as he belted out the national anthem, Mudryk certainly looked as though he meant business in his country’s opening European Championship qualifier.
But twice in the space of a minute he was beaten to a through ball by the pace of Kyle Walker.
And his next notable contribution didn’t arrive until midway through the first-half when he inadvertently blocked a shot from team-mate Ruslan Malinovskyi.
He briefly threatened to open England’s defence with a quick first time pass on the turn but striker Roman Yaremchuk had strayed offside in the build-up.
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And five minutes later Ukraine were two down as first Harry Kane and then Bukayo Saka delivered quick-fire goals to leave England on cruise control.
And the sight of Saka cutting inside to curl one into the top corner only rubbed salt into Mudryk’s wounds.
Two months ago the Ukrainian Player of the Year had set his heart on becoming Saka’s Arsenal team-mate.
He had even admitted in an interview with Oleksandr Zinchenko’s wife that he was dreaming of a move to the Emirates.
But that was before the League leaders were gazumped by Todd Boehly’s Chelsea’s billions and he suddenly found himself drifting along in mid-table and unsure of his place in Graham Potter’s pecking order.
Now he is playing catch-up with that massive price tag weighing him down while having to deal with the disappointment of another no-show.
His frustration was evident in first-half stoppage time when he tried to launch a kamikaze charge right through the heart of the England defence before being stopped dead in his tracks by Kane tracking all the way back to make a tackle.
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And if he was hoping that things might improve after the break, well, he was out of luck again.
No-one doubts that there is a real talent waiting to sparkle, it’s just taking longer to reach the surface than most of us were expecting.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
