Enzo or Mudryk: Did Chelsea pick right?

Stuart Telford

• 15 Jan 2023 10:50 GMT
• 4 min read

Chelsea baulked at Benfica's €120 million asking price for Enzo Fernandez but have now agreed to pay Shakhtar Donetsk €100m for Mykhailo Mudryk. Did they make the right choice?

Fernandez to Chelsea and Mudryk to Arsenal seemed like done deals in all but writing ahead of the winter transfer window, the Blues targeting the former to shore up their midfield while the Gunners hoped the latter would add some wing wizardry.

But as it stands, Fernandez is still with Benfica and expected to stay there for the rest of the season at least, while Mudryk is on the cusp of sealing his own blockbuster transfer to Stamford Bridge instead.

READ: Mudryk agrees Chelsea personal terms as Arsenal refuse to match €100m bid

Todd Boehly and Chelsea could still go back in for Fernandez, but the Mudryk move surely blows a hole in their transfer budget, even if it has often seemed limitless since the American billionaire succeeded Roman Abramovich as owner last May.

Have the Blues made the right moves?

Tactically, it could be argued that central midfield was a more pressing issue for Chelsea than the wide attacking areas, with Jorginho and N'Golo Kante both now the wrong side of 30 and the latter in particular increasingly sidelined by injury.

But Mudryk's numbers as a winger this season have far exceeded anything Raheem Sterling, Christian Pulisic, Hakim Ziyech or even new arrival Joao Felix have managed this term, his five goal-involvements in six Champions League games part of the reason why his transfer value has skyrocketed.

READ: 'FFP doesn’t exist for Chelsea' - Twitter reacts to Mudryk transfer news

Chelsea will hope increased competition from Mudryk will see Sterling and Felix raise their games, with it widely expected that Pulisic and Ziyech will depart the club, if not this transfer window then in the next.

There is also a branding perspective. Arsenal weren't ever seriously in for Fernandez, who won the World Cup with Argentina this winter, but their interest in Mudryk - and Mudryk's in them - was increasingly public.

That Chelsea have beaten the Gunners to his transfer helps establish them as the No.1 destination in London, even if Arsenal are currently top of the Premier League, nine places and 19 points better off than the Blues.

And Chelsea can always go back in for Fernandez. They might even do so this window, if they can persuade Benfica to accept players like Ziyech as makeweights.

Doing Mudryk now kept the door open for going for Enzo later. If they had prioritised Fernandez instead, Mudryk might have been wearing an Arsenal jersey, officially, by now.