The Athletic’s David Ornstein has predicted that Shakhtar Donetsk will end up accepting a bid of less than €100m for Arsenal target Mykhaylo Mudryk.
The 21-year-old has emerged as one of the top young talents in Europe and his value has rocketed in recent months.
Everton tried to sign him for around €30m in the summer prior to his excellent performances in the Champions League this term.
Mudryk was involved in five goals in six games in the group stages of the competition as Shakhtar ultimately failed to advance.
Arsenal have joined the race to sign Mudryk in recent weeks and the player has made it abundantly clear that he wants the transfer to happen.
A priority for the Gunners is to sign a new winger in January after they failed to get one in during the summer.
Arsenal and the player want the deal to go through, but a potential stumbling block is Shakhtar’s enormous asking price.
The Ukrainian side have publicly stated that they value the youngster at around €100m.
But reports from elsewhere have suggested that they will instead ‘entertain offers of around €60m’.
Ornstein is as accurate a reporter as you can find when it comes to transfers and he suspects that Shakhtar “will come down in price” during the winter transfer window.
“Mudryk is the player they [Arsenal] want to sign. They followed him for a long time,” Ornstein told Hayters TV.
“He was on their list of potential candidates during the summer transfer window. They are in talks with Shakhtar, with the player’s representatives.
“Shakhtar have publicly said they want €100m [for Mudryk].
“Arsenal won’t want to go that high, I don’t think any club will.
“I think the likelihood is Shakhtar will come down in price when push comes to shove.”
Ornstein added: “There are some people you speak to in the industry who think they will get it done.
“The Kroenke’s are backing Edu and Mikel Arteta to make this big final push in the last six months of the season to try and win the title.”
Gabriel Jesus is set to be out of a couple of months with a knee injury. Now Reiss Nelson has picked up an injury during Arsenal’s friendly against Juventus over the weekend.
Speaking post-match, Mikel Arteta claimed that Nelson’s injury will not “change the plans” for January.
“We don’t know the extent of the injury,” Arteta said on Saturday.
“The fact he had to leave the pitch immediately is not good news, especially for someone like Reiss, who is really powerful and fast.
“Let’s see what happens. We know what we have to do and that hasn’t changed the plans.”
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