Mauricio Pochettino may have dropped subtle Chelsea transfer hint with back-to-back decisions

He may have played 1,244 minutes for Chelsea this season, but the progress and development of Mykhailo Mudryk is a cause of concern for the club. The £87million figure was branded about plenty when the Ukrainian joined Chelsea in January 2023, but football.london understands clauses will have to be triggered in order for the number to get anywhere near that.

Chelsea will pay Shakhtar Donetsk around £60m over the course of his eight-year contract at Stamford Bridge thanks to the club taking advantage of amortisation. Either way, it was – and still is – a lot of money to pay for Mudryk, who is yet to prove his value at Stamford Bridge in the 13 months since he arrived.

The 23-year-old has had two small patches where he has showed what he is capable of this season. He scored his first Premier League goal for Chelsea in the win away at Fulham before also netting against Arsenal just over a fortnight later.

Then in December, Mudryk scored a late goal to help Chelsea progress into the Carabao Cup semi-final, before scoring against Crystal Palace in the Premier League eight days later. However, it has not been enough from the Ukrainian.

«He's a fantastic guy and he's such a nice person,» Pochettino said on Mudryk in December. «He's very authentic and genuine. One thing I can tell you, he's very honest and very trustworthy and a very genuine and spontaneous guy. I trust in him as a person, of course.

»And then as a player he knows he needs to keep improving. He's still young and he is going to improve, because he has the quality. He's a player that in his evolution is doing really well and we are so happy.

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