Arsenal may well be breathing a sigh of relief over their failure to sign Mykhailo Mudryk.
Once one of football’s hottest properties, the Gunners were pipped to the Ukrainian’s signature by Chelsea in January 2023, but his career has now hit a new low after testing positive for a banned substance.
Having been provisionally suspended by the FA and facing a ban of up to four years from football, Mudryk’s future currently hangs in the balance.
This is a huge blow for both the 23-year-old and his employers, whose time with the Blues has proved a disappointment since joining on an eight-and-a-half year deal worth £88million.
He has failed to justify his hefty price tag so far, managing just five league goals in 53 matches.
And recent events will no doubt leave some parties pondering what might have been, with Mudryk’s career at one point appearing headed in a very different direction.
Before Chelsea emptied their pockets for him, the promising forward had seemed set to join rivals Arsenal from Shakhtar Donetsk.
In a long-running transfer saga, the Gunners saw three separate bids rejected by Shakhtar, with manager Mikel Arteta and former technical director Edu reportedly convinced of Mudryk’s talent.
So much so in fact, that they were prepared to smash their then club record transfer fee by matching Chelsea’s eye-watering final offer.
Throughout this, Mudryk made no secret that north London was his preferred destination.
The starlet frequently expressed his admiration of Arsenal and Arteta on social media during their pursuit of him, which began after he impressed for Ukraine on his senior debut against Scotland in June 2022.
On one occasion, following the Gunners’ 3-1 Boxing Day victory over West Ham in 2022, Mudryk uploaded footage of their third goal to his Instagram story, accompanied by several fire emojis.
