Shakhtar Donetsk CEO Sergei Palkin has revealed that Chelsea beat Arsenal to the signing of Ukrainian attacker Mykhaylo Mudryk owing to their inclusion of more "achievable and realistic" bonuses.
The 22-year-old had been on the radar of the Gunners for several weeks after coming up with 10 goals and eight assists in 18 games for Shakhtar in the first half of the 2022-23 season.
Arsenal had two bids rejected by Shakhtar, but they had agreed personal terms with Mudryk - who dropped hints of his interest in a move on social media - and were eventually expected to get a deal over the line.
However, Chelsea managed to hijack a move for the attacker last week and sealed his signing for a €100m (£88.4m) fee, and he was unveiled at Stamford Bridge during the Blues' win over Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Mudryk has signed a seven-year deal with the option of a further 12 months, and speaking to The Athletic, Palkin revealed that Chelsea's add-ons package was more appealing than Arsenal's, who did match the Blues' nine-figure sum.
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"Overall, it was the same. Not approximately the same — it was the same figure. The fixed part, variable part, bonuses. But if you look inside the fixed part and bonuses, it was completely different," Palkin said.
"Different time (schedule) of the payments, different kinds of bonuses. Yes, we can talk about bonuses, but these bonuses should be somehow achievable and realistic, let's say. Therefore, in this case, Chelsea was much more serious and fair in some points.
"When we met Chelsea, we stayed all together. For you to understand the context, it was for nine or 10 hours. They invited the player and explained to us the whole project.
"We realised that, yes, if you look right now, Chelsea have some kinds of problems but it is normal because they have a transition period from one owner to another. It is understandable.
"They would like to change a lot. So when they explain to you the whole story and you look for the next two, three, four, five years, then you see they have a serious project."
Palkin also revealed that Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta, sporting director Edu and Oleksandr Zinchenko - Mudryk's Ukrainian teammate - had been in contact with the player to try to persuade him to join at least a month before negotiations were underway between the two clubs.
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While hitting out at the Gunners over their 'tapping-up' of Mudryk, Palkin confirmed that Shakhtar did not make a complaint to FIFA, saying: "When I met Arsenal and they mentioned they had already talked to the player and they had contacted the player, to be honest, I knew beforehand that they had started to contact him.
"I said, 'OK, you start to contact him but first of all you should close it with us'. But OK, we have what we have. We didn't do a formal complaint. They did what they did."
As part of the agreement to transfer Mudryk to Chelsea, Graham Potter's side will travel to Donetsk to face Shakhtar in a friendly, if and when Russian soldiers no longer occupy the region.
Palkin also revealed that the £20.4m sum to help the Ukrainian war relief - which was originally reported to come from the Mudryk fee - would instead come out of the pocket of the club's president Rinat Akhmetov.
Mudryk could make his debut for Chelsea when the Blues travel to Anfield to face Liverpool on Saturday lunchtime, and he is one of five new signings to arrive at Stamford Bridge so far.
Atletico Madrid loanee Joao Felix, Benoit Badiashile, David Datro Fofana and Andrey Santos have also joined Potter's ranks over the winter, and RB Leipzig chief Max Eberl has confirmed that Christopher Nkunku will make the switch to Stamford Bridge in the summer.
Ben Knapton
