CHELSEA new boy Mykhailo Mudryk is earning LESS than Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek despite costing £88million.
The Blues agreed a deal that could eventually be worth a whopping £97m to sign the 22-year-old from Shakhtar Donetsk last week.
The Ukrainian winger was presented to the Chelsea faithful at half-time of Sunday’s victory over Crystal Palace after the transfer was confirmed during the game.
He initially looked to be heading to Arsenal before the Stamford Bridge outfit usurped their rivals and offered the winger £10,000-a-week more than the Gunners.
Mudryk agreed an eight-and-a-half year contract which will see him pocket around £97,000 weekly.
However, The Athletic have reported that is less than both Hudson-Odoi and Loftus-Cheek.
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Hudson-Odoi penned a new five-year deal in 2019 for £100,000-a-week after rejecting the opportunity to join Bayern Munich.
But after falling out of favour, he was shipped off to Bayer Leverkusen on loan at the start of the campaign, and speculation is mounting he could leave this summer.
Meanwhile, midfielder Loftus-Cheek also signed a five-year contract worth £150,000 per week in 2019.
After a loan spell at Fulham in 2020/21, he was starting to get regular action earlier this term before injury struck and he has not played since November 6.
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The report also adds that Mudryk’s relatively low salary is part of a new strategy from owner Todd Boehly to lower the wage bill.
Shakhtar Donetsk’s CEO hit out at Arsenal’s conduct over Mykhailo Mudryk – and explained why Chelsea landed the star.
Sergei Palkin said: “It is because Arsenal contacted the player almost one and a half months before they contacted us.
“Can you imagine, for example, to have Mikel Arteta, Oleksandr Zinchenko and the sporting director (Edu) calling you, to have Arsenal calling you almost every day, every two days, every three days?
“Therefore, why did many people around it have the impression that Mudryk was going to Arsenal? It is because Arsenal contacted him and then Mudryk started to watch some games of Arsenal. But negotiations are negotiations.”
While the CEO confirmed he did not make any formal complaints, he did raise the issue with the Gunners’ negotiating team.
Palkin added: “When I met Arsenal and they mentioned they had already talked to the player and they had contacted the player. To be honest, I knew beforehand that they had started to contact him.
“I said, ‘OK, you start to contact him but first of all you should close it with us’. But OK, we have what we have.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
