Why Mudruk Could Have A Similar Career Path to Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne - Why Chelsea Need To Not let That Happen.

When Mykailo Mudryk slipped through the grasp of Arsenal and decided to join Chelsea in January 2023, Chelsea fans thought that they were getting one of the most exciting and promising young talents in the world. 8 months on from that, that’s exactly what he still is, exciting and promising but yet to show fully what he’s got in his locker. Bar a promising debut at Anfield that had Chelsea fans online like Rory Jennings compare him to Eden Hazard, he has yet to show the Chelsea fans the reason why Arsenal and why Mikel Arteta in particular were willing to spend 80 million to sign him so badly. When you look at it logically, this is a young man who is 22 years of age, arriving from a country that is in the midst of the most televised war in the world right now, and who arrived at Chelsea who are in the middle of their biggest transitional period in the past 20 years, the biggest since the Roman Abramovic revoloution in 2003. The money that was paid for him to come to Chelsea also puts a whole new level of expectation on the youngster to peform day in and day out, when the reality of the situation is that it was never going to be possible for Mudryk to do this at Chelsea at this moment in time. Mudryk has spent his career playing week in and week out in the Ukranian football league, which is a massive step down from playing in the most competitive and most watched league in the world. Although he has played big games in the Champions League for Shakhtar Donetsk against the likes of Real Madrid and Celtic, those games were on once every 2 weeks for Mudryk, whereas playing in England requires you to play at the highest level once every 3-4 days because of the amount of competitions Chelsea are usually in. Coming from Ukraine to England was always going to be one of the challenges that Mudryk faced, but not the only one.

When looking at Mudryk’s time at Chelsea so far, its hard not to be reminded of the careers that Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne had at Chelsea. Both players arrived at Chelsea as massive talents for the future from leagues that were far inferior to the Premier League. Salah arrived from FC Basel in January 2014 with high expectations, having already showed the Chelsea fans what to expect from him by scoring against them that same season in the Champions League group stages. He went on to struggle for the blues, only making 19 appearances for Jose Mourinho’s side and only scoring 2 goals for the club. He was let go on loan to Fiorentina in January 2015 in a swap deal with Juan Cuadrado moving the other way, and since then has gone on to have a fantastic career, becoming a legend for Chelsea’s rivals Liverpool. Kevin De Bruyne had a similar career path. He arrived as an exciting winger from Genk in 2012 and was loaned out to Werder Bremen, enjoying a fruitful season scoring 10 goals and assisting 9. He then started in the first game of the next season in Jose Mourinho’s first game back at Chelsea against Hull City and provided the assist to Oscar for the first goal of the game, his first ever assist in the Premier League which would see the beginning of a large number of assists in the competition, just not for Chelsea. De Bruyne went on to make 8 more appearances for the club before returning to Germany to Wolfsburg in January 2014 after not seeing eye to eye with Jose Mourinho about the amount of games that he was playing. De Bruyne has now gone on to become one of the best midfielders that the Premier League has ever seen playing for Manchester City, having a career that has led him to being put in the same bracket as Paul Scholes, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard. The problems that surrounded Salah and De Bruyne’s playing time at Chelsea were similar, but also could not have been more different

When Mohamed Salah joined the club in 2014 he was seen as an exciting young winger who would have a big part to play in Chelsea’s remaining games that season. But his problem was that he was joining a team which had 2 of the most dynamic and exciting wingers at the time in Eden Hazard and Willian, with strikers Fernando Torres and Samuel Eto’o also occupying the striker position. In Kevin De Bruyne’s case, he was brought in and had to compete with the likes of Frank Lampard, John Obi Mikel, Ramires, Oscar and even out of favour Juan Mata being ahead of him. Both players had to deal with competition for places however in the case of Mykhailo Mudryk, the players that he is competing with are not ready made winners like Hazard or Lampard, they are all youngsters like himself who are starting out in the game and who all must get the game-time needed for their development. Mudryk has to compete with the likes of Christopher Nkunku, Raheem Sterling, Madueke, Cole Palmer and even Ben Chilwell who has been played as a left winger under new boss Mauricio Pochettino. The average age for all of these players is 24 years old, showing just how young Chelsea’s attacking lineup is. Mudryk is competing against players who are just as hungry as he is, which leads to inconsistencies in playing time, which then leads to a lack of confidence and motivation.

One thing that is definitely in Mudryk’s favour in comparison to Salah and De Bruyne is the manager that he is playing under in Mauricio Pochettino, who is known for giving youngsters oppurtunities, evidenced in the work that he did with a young Harry Kane and Dele Alli at Tottenham. Salah and De Bruyne were playing under a Jose Mourinho who is known for being a ruthless winner who will do so whatever the cost and usually does not have the time to allow players to grow into his side, rather preferring to have them ready made for him. Pochettino is a manager who will give Mudryk his chances there is no doubt about that, but whether Mudryk will seize on those oppurtunities is another thing. So far this season he has struggled for both games and goals and assists, ,making just 6 appearances so far this season, 2 of them starting in the starting 11 and the rest coming off the bench, scoring no goals and assisting none also. This has not worried Pochettino, saying that the problem with Mudryk is not regarding his ability, rather his belief in himself. The Chelsea boss recently said in his press conference that Mudryk refuses to play the crossbar challenge against him because he always loses, to which Pochettino responded by saying that he just lacks the belief and the experience necessary needed to beat him, which will come in time. This shows that Pochettino believes in his ability which is exactly the confidence boost and belief that Mudryk needs from his manager at this moment in time, however football is a results driven business, and with Chelsea having their worst start in the league in nearly 40 years, who knows whether Pochettino will be able to ride this negative wave of results, especially with the ruthless Todd Bohely looming over him every week. It looks like at this moment in time, Mudryk has the full faith of the manager and looks as though Pochettino is fully aware of the talent and skills that he possesses that are required to make it as a top winger in the league, and that Pochettino does not want a repeat of the Salah - De Bruyne situation where Chelsea let go of a diamond they should have nurtured and sharpened rather than let it go and see it shine for another club.