Leeds United transfer collapse explained with ‘super excited’ star blocked from move

Leeds United have learned exactly why Chelsea blocked their prolonged bid to bring in Mykhailo Mudryk despite “doing everything” to secure his signing, with the Ukrainian ultimately joining the Blues’ bitter London rivals Tottenham Hotspur in a surprise deal.

Direct transfers between Spurs and Chelsea have not been too common down the years, with Carlo Cudicini back in 2008 the last person to leave Stamford Bridge directly.

And while there have been some players who have represented both clubs in the intervening years – Eidur Gudjohnsen, Gus Poyet, William Gallas, Conor Gallagher and Dominic Solanke to name five – it will have perhaps come as a shock that Chelsea will have sanctioned not one, but two direct deals with Tottenham for both Tosin and Mudryk on transfer deadline day.

The second of those, Mudryk, is certainly the more eye-catching. The 25-year-old has endured a hard time of things in West London since a £62m move from Shakhtar Donetsk and has only just recently been cleared to resume his career after serving a suspension for alleged doping offences, which have since been dropped.

After Chelsea cleared him to leave on loan, Leeds made a huge push to bring him to Elland Road and the Whites were widely reported to be the player’s preferred move.

Ultimately, though, Leeds failed to strike a deal, and their hopes of a deal collapsed for good once Tottenham made a late play for his signature with just 24 hours left in the window.

Now, speaking to BBC Radio Leeds, reporter Nazar Kinsella has explained exactly why the West Yorkshire side were unable to pull off a deal, with Farke’s team ultimately pivoting towards Eintracht Frankfurt’s Jean-Matteo Bahoya, who sealed his switch with moments to spare.

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Why Mudryk to Leeds did not happen

“Certainly for a long time, Leeds were winning the race (to sign Mudryk), certainly in the mind of Mykhailo Mudryk anyway,” Kinsella said.

“He was super excited about joining Leeds. It was a great platform for him.

“Leeds did everything. I don’t think that you will get anyone on; I shouldn’t think on Chelsea’s side either, but certainly not on Mudryk’s side, who thought Leeds weren’t doing everything.

“Offering him a great spot in the squad, negotiating really hard with Chelsea, who were trying to make it an expensive loan to be fair to Leeds.”

Indeed, as TEAMtalk touched upon on Tuesday, it was Tottenham’s willingness to adhere to Chelsea’s demands to include a £75m buy option in the deal – a figure Leeds were not willing to match, nor could afford to match.

And when Spurs said they would, and with Mudryk keen to reunite with his former boss Roberto De Zerbi, Leeds’ hopes quickly fell apart.

Explaining his reasons for the move, Mudryk revealed his promise to Spurs supporters.

Going into that decision further, Kinsella added: “Leeds were doing everything within reason without going overboard to try and get this deal done.

“Unfortunately, I think that Chelsea wanted to do business more with Tottenham.

“So I don’t think it was actually that much Mudryk who didn’t want to go to Leeds, I think it was more Chelsea preferred Mudryk went to Tottenham.”

Ultimately, the failure to land Mudryk did not impact Leeds’ plans too much as they were able to push through the last-gasp deal for Bahoya and with the popular Willy Gnonto also allowed to move on, with the Italian moving back to his homeland to join Fiorentina, while the Whites were also able to secure a deadline day deal to bring in French left-back Melvin Bard.