Graham Potter admits Chelsea have made an “educated guess” when it comes to Mykhailo Mudryk and his eight-year contract.
Ukraine winger Mudryk is set to make an instant debut – almost certainly off the bench – at Liverpool after the Blues pipped Arsenal to sign the winger.
They paid Shakhtar Donetsk £88.5m to do so, with the player’s lengthy contract designed to avoid falling foul of Financial Fair Play regulations.
Manager Potter admitted it represented a big gamble considering plenty of previous stars in their own homeland had found the Premier League too hot to handle.
“There is no guarantee anywhere,” he said. “No magic formula that says this is going to work and this is how we see the future.
“With every decision you’ve got to make the best educated guess that you can.
“If you identify the right player and the right person there’s huge upsides to it because you are developing and investing in him.
“If things go well you have a fantastic asset, and the club is secure in terms of the contract length. It’s a direction the club wants to go down and obviously I am supporting that as best I can.”
Potter is not short of wide men but believed the 22-year-old nevertheless added a missing ingredient to a squad that has also seen Joao Felix, Benoit Badiashile, David Datro Fofana and Andrey Santos added this month, with a deal for PSV Eindhoven’s Noni Madueke – another winger – also in the pipeline.
“He brings speed, he brings directness, he brings one-vs-one ability to just eliminate an opponent, ” Potter said.
“Sometimes with all the noise around him you have to focus on helping him settle in, not put too much pressure on him.
“It doesn’t matter how much the price tag says, it’s about how a human being goes from this country and this league to this country and this league, and help him understand about us and us as a club. If we do that well then he will be a huge success.”
Arteta: Arsenal tracked Trossard ‘for a while’
Leandro Trossard joins Arsenal’s title tilt following an acrimonous departure from Brighton amid claims he refused to train in order to force through an exit from the AMEX Stadium.
Such a situation would have triggered a red flag in the Arsenal recruitment team – were it not for a stellar reference from a former manager already ensconced within the Emirates Stadium hierarchy.
Assistant coach Albert Stuivenberg managed Trossard at Genk in 2017 and his first-hand experience of working with the Belgian international meant he could make or break the 28-year-old’s move to north London.
As it turns out, manager Mikel Arteta revealed Stuivenberg has long been banging the drum for Trossard – who is likely to go straight into the squad for Arsenal’s huge Premier League clash at home to Manchester United on Sunday.
“Albert did (give a good reference),” said Arteta. “We are really happy to have him. He’s a player we followed for a while.
“The opportunity came and we had the necessity for a player in the front line who is versatile enough to play different positions.”
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Trossard is the oldest outfield player signed by Arsenal since an ill-fated move for Willian in the summer of 2020.
But, if questions over his character have been answered sufficiently, Arteta also has no concerns over the age profile of his newest recruit.
“The squad can absorb right now a player of 28 years old,” he said.
“With the right experience, the right versatility and the right quality. And as well with the right price, for sure.
“We have to think short term but as well medium and long term. He gives us all that. He’s a very intelligent player. When you look at what he’s done in the last few years, he’s a player who fits our way of playing. We are happy to have him.
“He knows the league, he has enough experience here and I think he can have an immediate impact on the team.”
Lampard ‘philosophical’ over Everton future
If Frank Lampard loses his job he will walk out of Everton with his head held high insisting he has given it everything.
Lampard accepts that the pressure he is under already will only intensify if his team lose to fellow strugglers West Ham at the London Stadium in a game jokingly labelled “El Sackio” with Hammers boss David Moyes’ future also on the line.
Lampard has been in regular dialogue with the club’s owner Farhad Moshiri who gave him a vote of confidence before last week’s home defeat to Southampton.
But another loss today may well change Moshiri’s stance especially as Everton -have a two-week break after today’s game before their next fixture against leaders Arsenal.
Lampard kept Everton up last season – just – but has won only nine out of 37 Premier League games since taking charge a year ago.
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“I can’t answer that question [that he has been working with his hands tied behind his back] and I don’t want to answer. I’ve been given an opportunity to work at a great club and I don’t want to sound too philosophical but everything is a good challenge and opportunity.
“I’ve had one of the most amazing nights of my footballing career against Crystal Palace [when Everton stayed up last season with a game to go], learned a lot about myself, about coaching about living in this area of England, which I’d never lived or worked in before, so I don’t want to get hung on those sort of things.
“I’ve got my own opinions on those things obviously but I think it would be wrong for me to sit here and make statements like that because when I came into it I had an understanding of what the job was, the size of the club and all the positive things and then some things that were maybe going to be taxing. Some things I can’t control on that front so I just work.”
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