CHELSEA CONFIDENTIAL: The mysterious world of secrets around Mykhailo Mudryk and what his lawyers are saying about failed doping test, the 16-year-old Blues wonderkid in a race to make history and how Chelsea avoided Liverpool’s mistakes

It is nearly three months since Chelsea winger Mykhailo Mudryk confirmed he had failed a doping test, telling us in a statement he had ‘never knowingly used any banned substances’ and that he is ‘working closely with my team to investigate how this could have happened’.

There has only been silence since and with that void comes misinformation.

Quotes from Mudryk were shared on social media last week, for example, including by one Chelsea fan account on X boasting more than a million followers. Yet I’m told by the 24-year-old Ukrainian’s team that their client has not said a word.

Kudos to the Chelsea aggregators on social media who did not blindly trust them without proof of an original source, particularly as the dubious comments perversely talked to losing five family members to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and now feeling lost without football.

Naturally, cases such as Mudryk’s are legally complex. They can be highly secretive, painfully slow and, as you may have noticed, tricky for those of us covering them to issue a verified update, no matter what you may hear on the grapevine and from whom. As of today, the FA have not charged him and he is still only provisionally suspended.

Occasionally, manager Enzo Maresca is asked if there is an update at his press conferences. The last time it happened was on February 21 when he simply replied: ‘No, I don’t think so.’

There has only been silence since and with that void comes misinformation

He has not played since November and Chelsea are believed to have provided Mudryk with an individual programme to maintain his fitness from afar

It is slightly harsh on Chelsea’s head coach, in truth. He is hardly going to drop a bombshell in between discussing injuries and inverted full backs while previewing his team’s next Premier League game.

In search of a concrete update from someone much more capable, Confidential asked the following five questions of Chelsea Football Club, Mudryk’s representative on behalf of ProStar Football Agency, his lawyers Morgan Sports Law, and the FA:

• Has Mykhailo Mudryk’s B sample returned?

• If so, what was the finding of said B sample?

• Is Mykhailo Mudryk continuing to contest his original adverse finding?

• Have Mykhailo Mudryk and his team established and/or clarified how the sample he provided to the FA contained its banned substance?

• What is the current timeline for Mykhailo Mudryk’s case?

We provided the above parties with three days to provide answers, but come our Monday 3pm deadline, we were told they could not make any comment.

Everyone realises there is an elephant in the room, one which cost £89million when signed from Shakhtar Donetsk in January 2023

Questionable ‘updates’ are bound to continue to crop up from the odd fan account on social media until a concrete update arrives

Never mind, we tried, don’t ask, don’t get and all that. Even so, everyone realises there is an elephant in the room, one which cost £89million when signed from Shakhtar Donetsk in January 2023.

He has not played since November 28, 2024, and Chelsea are believed to have provided Mudryk with an individual programme to maintain his fitness from afar, while he is not allowed to train with his team-mates at their Cobham base.

Questionable ‘updates’ are bound to continue to crop up from the odd fan account on social media, though you should be extremely wary of such clickbait. Until an official announcement arrives, it is all guesswork.

Whatcha Fink about Chelsea?

‘This is something that the owners are really keen on and they’ve really encouraged me to do it. But I also like it. Talking to fellow supporters about the club is basically my favourite thing to do.’

That is Lord Finkelstein, the Chelsea director, speaking to Confidential after we heard he was personally taking time to meet fans.

It is a good initiative – one which can help create a connection between the boardroom and the lifeblood whom they serve – with Finkelstein not only communicating with fans, but crucially listening to what they have to say.

Chelsea want to place an emphasis on fan engagement and Finkelstein, as someone who cares deeply for the club he has supported for more than 50 years, is hardly bad company to have over a lunch discussing the Blues’ direction.

Chelsea will escape being charged and fined by the FA for how their players protested the penalty they were not awarded when Cole Palmer was barged by Leicester’s Luke Thomas

It means Chelsea will avoid adding to the £230,000 that they have already been fined by the governing body for various indiscretions since the start of this season

Blues get away with rounding on Robinson

Good news for Chelsea, as Confidential has been told they will escape being charged and fined by the FA for how their players protested the penalty they were not awarded when Cole Palmer was barged by Leicester’s Luke Thomas after the opening minute.

The commentary on Match of the Day 2 highlighted how referee Tim Robinson was surrounded by a ‘sea of blue’ at Stamford Bridge, while the club’s own in-house channel said ‘you can see players all around the referee’ in their full match replay available online.

But I hear the FA are letting this one slide, meaning Chelsea will avoid adding to the £230,000 that they have already been fined by the governing body for various indiscretions since the start of this season.

That includes £40,000 for surrounding the referee after a penalty was awarded to Ipswich, £40,000 for a mass confrontation with Nottingham Forest and £150,000 in total for receiving six or more yellows in matches with Bournemouth, Nottingham Forest and Newcastle.

Chelsea proud of players’ long contracts

Chelsea are forever analysing the data and I’m told one intriguing statistic from a recent round of crunching numbers within the club is how 87 per cent of the squad are tied down to 2029 and beyond.

While their Premier League rivals have to contend with the headache of their players’ contracts expiring this summer – see Liverpool’s current predicament with Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold, for example – the Blues never want to let one of their stars get into the final two years of his contract, let alone the last year.

Chelsea have a 16-year-old schoolboy called Ryan Kavuma-McQueen who enjoyed an excellent end to last week

Kavuma-McQueen started for England’s Under 16s last week against France

He scored the winning goal for Chelsea against Ipswich in an Under-21s Premier League Cup match

Lightning McQueen in a race to impress

Chelsea have a 16-year-old schoolboy called Ryan Kavuma-McQueen who enjoyed an excellent end to last week.

On Wednesday, March 5, he started for England’s Under-16s versus France in Spain. On Friday, March 7, he scored the winner for Chelsea’s Under-21s against Ipswich. On Saturday, March 8, he gave their Under-18s the lead over West Brom.

While we should not expect too much too soon – we can big up youngsters so fanatically that it is unfair on them – Chelsea are liking Kavuma-McQueen’s progress.

The youngest ever player to appear for the Blues was Ian ‘Chico’ Hamilton, who was 16 years and 138 days when he was handed his senior debut in a First Division draw with Tottenham in March 1967. He even scored, to also become their youngest ever scorer.

Enzo Maresca does not mind using Cobham – all three of his substitutes in the last Premier League win over Leicester were homegrown – and Kavuma-McQueen still has time to beat Hamilton’s record.

However, with so much riding on results in the Premier League and Conference League, you wonder if this season will come too soon for a first team cameo. Let’s see.

Whatever happens, it is nice to see Cobham continuing its tradition of producing fine prospects.

Win-win for Shim and Co

Shim Mheuka’s name is set to be added to a wall of debutants that you will find on the wall inside the academy building at Cobham.

That follows the 17-year-old striker making his first start for the senior side last week in Copenhagen in the Conference League, after being handed his Premier League bow less than two weeks before.

Shim Mheuka’s name is set to be added to a wall of debutants that you will find on the wall inside the academy building at Cobham, after making his first start against Copenhagen

With Mheuka rattling off the milestones, it is believed Brighton are beginning to benefit from the add-ons inserted into his sale to Chelsea when he was only 14. A tribunal settled on a fee worth £1million, rising to £4.25m based on various achievements.

Confidential knows that a £250,000 chunk will require paying when he signs his second professional contract with Chelsea upon turning 18 and that should they ever sell him, Brighton will also be due 20 per cent of the transfer fee.

It’s a win-win for all parties, in truth. Brighton receive money for a kid they sold at 14, and Chelsea benefit from Mheuka going from strength to strength.

I spy with my little binoculars… something beginning with TB

It was during Sunday’s Premier League win over Leicester that we heard Todd Boehly might be making a rare appearance at Stamford Bridge in the West Stand, opposite the press seats.

I mentioned to a colleague from another newspaper that I wish we had binoculars to check the directors’ box. Then what does he whip out of his bag? A monocular telescope. Fair play. Boy Scouts could only wish to be as prepared.

Anyway, Boehly was indeed in attendance, not sat next to his fellow co-owner Behdad Eghbali but in the same section of suave seating.

Todd Boehly made his first visit to Stamford Bridge for a long time and was pictured with former women’s team manager Emma Hayes

Though this was Boehly’s first visit to the Bridge in a while, the American billionaire was an attendee at the Amex Stadium for one of the Brighton games last month.

Wandering Willie

A few hours before kick-off in Copenhagen, a certain recently retired rugby league star walked by us in the city centre.

It was none other than Willie Isa, Chelsea’s ‘cultural architect’ whose responsibilities include instilling a winning vibe in a player support capacity.

Isa is travelling home and away with the team, as opposed to simply acting as a Cobham presence.