Despite all the difficulties in the deal, it wouldn’t be surprising if in the end, Liverpool will still end up signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan from Shakhtar Donetsk, who haven’t been making it easy, showing great reluctance in giving up their top scorer from last season.
According to the Daily Mirror, the Armenian midfielder has gone on some sort of strike, and has made it clear he does not want to come back to Shakhtar. He’s trying as hard as he can to push for a move away from the Ukrainian champions, but it’s a bit more complicated than he would have liked it to be.
Shakhtar are asking for £25.5 million for the player, while Liverpool want to pay £20 million. In the meantime, Dortmund are also interested in the player, and have made an offer worth £19 million to Shakhtar for Mkhitaryan.
Despite early reports, there is no release clause in Mkhitaryan’s contract. However, he can still break away from his contract, which would result in a fine worth £19 million, the same price offered by Dortmund.
In the meantime, he isn’t planning on stepping away from the contract, as both (or all three sides) are trying to reach a civilized resolution, as chief executive Sergei Palkin elegantly put it. But Bayern Munich went through the same ordeal with Javi Martinez last season, and paid him the €40 million needed to get him out of his deal with Athletic Bilbao. It worked quite well for them.
Mkhitaryan himself would like to end up playing for Liverpool, even though Dortmund offer Champions League football, but so do Shakhtar. He has been seen in London, and it is rumored he has agreed his personal terms with Liverpool, with now all that awaits is settling the score with Shakhtar, who realize there isn’t much they can do to retain the player, and all that’s left is making the most amount of money possible from the situation.