Mykhailo Mudryk has the talent to succeed at Chelsea despite his underwhelming first 18 months at the club, pundit Joe Hart has insisted.
The winger, currently on international duty with Ukraine at Euro 2024, arrived at Stamford Bridge in a big-money £88million deal in January 2023.
But he has struggled to find consistency, having scored just seven goals and recorded four assists in his 58 appearances for the Blues to date.
Particular criticism has been levelled at the 23-year-old’s lack of end product but Hart, who Mudryk scored against twice during Shakhtar Donetsk’s two Champions League group stage matches against Celtic in 2022, is confident he will improve.
‘There is a huge talent in him,’ Hart told the BBC. ‘I played against him when he was high on confidence at Shakhtar. They were a pretty average team, to be honest.
‘We played well against them. But he was such a threat. He smashed two past me across the two legs. I was really excited when he signed in the Premier League.
‘He’s still young. Chelsea are a bit of a difficult club to shine in at the moment. If he is one of the wingers when they find their feet, I’m excited to see what he can do.’
Hart believes the chaotic set-up at the club, which saw Mauricio Pochettino depart after just one season in charge, has prevented Mudryk from fully finding his feet.
‘It’s not gone well for anyone really, apart from Cole Palmer,’ Hart added. ‘That’s just being brutally honest. But they are trying to build a foundation.
‘He’s a young player and he signed a big, long contract. Anything I’ve heard about him is someone that wants to improve and wants to work hard.
‘He’s always out doing shooting. The talent is in him, it’s just whether they can get it out of him in the Premier League.’
Mudryk had been locked in a transfer tussle between top-flight rivals Arsenal and Chelsea but eventually settled on a move to West London. He has since played under a succession of managers that have failed to extract the best from him, however.
Enzo Maresca is the latest tasked with improving the forward’s fortunes and will work with him for the first time during his first pre-season campaign this summer.
As reported by Mail Sport, Chelsea have blocked Mudryk and Enzo Fernandez from representing Ukraine and Argentina respectively at the upcoming Olympic Games.
The club are understood to be desperate to avoid a repeat of the nightmarish injury pile-up that threatened to derail Pochettino’s work last season and want Maresca to begin his first year at the helm with a fully-fit squad to choose from.
Chelsea are facing a busy season, including competing in the Premier League, FA Cup, Carabao Cup, Europa Conference League and Club World Cup next summer.
