Arsenal want Moussa Diaby & Raphinha – Mudryk has set benchmark for wingers

€100m the new norm? 

It has only been a few days since Mykhaylo Mudryk joined Chelsea from Shakhtar Donetsk in a deal worth €70 million plus €30m in add-ons, and already the move appears to have impacted the transfer market. Arsenal, the club that have lost out to Chelsea in their attempt to sign the Ukrainian winger, have since switched their attention to other targets, focusing in on Bayer Leverkusen’s Moussa Diaby and Barcelona’s Raphinha. 

Both those wingers have been linked with a transfer to Arsenal in the Transfermarkt rumor mill. Sky Sports and Sport Bild have reported that Arsenal are interested in Leverkusen’s Diaby, and Goal.com have linked the Gunners with Barça’s Brazilian winger Raphinha. Whether Arsenal can sign either one of those wingers as a cheaper alternative to Mudryk remains questionable, however. 

Raphinha only joined Barcelona from Arsenal’s league rivals Leeds United for €58 million last summer. Since the transfer, the Brazilian has scored just three goals and five assists in 23 games. That, however, does not mean the Catalans would allow Raphinha to leave fo a fee below his current market value. Barça will point at Raphinha’s track record in the Premier League, where he scored 17 goals and 12 assists in 65 games for Leeds United, and the fact that his current Transfermarkt market value is €10m more than Mudryk’s current evaluation. 

Diaby to Arsenal – Mudryk set benchmark for future transfers

The same can be said for Diaby. The Leverkusen winger has a current market value of €50m, which is a slight drop from the summer when he was worth €60m. But the decision-makers in Leverkusen feel that Mudryk has now set the going rate for wingers in the market. Leverkusen, in fact, were close to signing Mudryk—the Ukrainian had already completed a medical—for just around €16m in the summer, but a deal eventually collapsed. 

Mudryk was supposed to come in to replace Diaby, who was evaluated at around €70m, an evaluation that was close to being met by Newcastle United. Sources indicate that Leverkusen now use the Mudryk transfer as a benchmark as the Bundesliga club wants at least an initial €75m plus add-ons that can see the deal grow to over €100m. 

Leverkusen’s evaluation is based on the fact that the French national team player has a longer track record in a top 4 league. Diaby managed 13 goals and 12 assists in 32 Bundesliga games last season. Even this season, in which Diaby, like the entire club, had a slow start, the Frenchman still managed six goals and three assists in 15 games, showing an impressive uptick in the form under Spanish head coach Xabi Alonso. 

Diaby to Arsenal? – Wingers keep breaking records on the market

Astonishingly, the Mudryk deal in its entirety is only following a recent trend. Once he has hit all his bonuses, the Ukrainian will be ranked seventh among the most expensive wingers in history, just ahead of Antony, for whom Man United paid €95m to Ajax last summer. Overall, the ranking is led by Neymar (for €222m from Barça to PSG) and Ousmane Dembélé (for €140m from Dortmund to Barça). 

In fact, PSG in 2017, like Chelsea this season, produced a catalytic event on the transfer market when they signed Neymar for a World record fee. Barça took that money and spent it on Dembélé and Liverpool winger Philippe Coutinho (€135m)—two deals that were significantly above market value. The same process could soon be repeated thanks to Chelsea’s Mudryk transfer. 

The immediate beneficiary could be Leverkusen, who, with Diaby, now hold an asset wanted by Arsenal. An asset that will likely go significantly above market value. But Leverkusen are unlikely to be the only club to benefit. In Italy, Georgian winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia has been in tremendous form scoring 14 goals and 15 assists in 26 games across all competitions. With a current market value of €60m, the 21-year-old is already worth six times his €10m transfer fee, and Napoli will certainly watch the current going rate for wingers with some interest.

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