Brentford in talks with Shakhtar Donetsk over Mykhaylo Mudryk
By Sean Walsh
Brentford are continuing talks with Shakhtar Donetsk over highly-rated winger Mykhaylo Mudryk, 90min understands.
The Bees have made a fine start to their first season in the Premier League picking up 23 points from 19 games and sitting comfortably in 12th place in the table.
Though they're on course to secure survival, 90min revealed last month that Brentford want to boost their chances of staying up by bringing in reinforcements in the January transfer window and could spend north of £40m.
They are currently in negotiations with Ukrainian side Shakhtar over Mudryk, who confirmed in a recent interview with Sport Arena that Brentford's interest is genuine.
The left winger would relish playing in the Premier League and thanked Brentford for their advances but insisted that the final decision over his future is down to club president Rinat Akhmetov.
Brentford have been working hard on a deal for the 20-year-old, but it is proving tough to complete due to his rising price tag and interest from across Europe.
They were beaten to the signing of Brazilian full-back Vanderson by Monaco earlier this month, despite having previously believed that the former Gremio man had all but signed for the Bees.
Thomas Frank's side also remain interested in Nottingham Forest and Wales winger Brennan Johnson, though are reluctant to meet the £20m asking price.
Frank insisted in a recent press conference that Brentford don't need to shell out huge amounts in order to fulfil their Premier League vision following defeats to free-spending Manchester City and Brighton.
"I think it would be almost impossible to be competitive against a team like Man City - not just for one game, of course. In one game, anything can happen," Frank said.
"We've seen this season they lost to Crystal Palace at home where one mistake from them, a goal, a red card [cost them].
"Especially a team like City, they must be one of the teams with the best stats against teams at the lower end of the table because they're dominating so much.
"But of course against a team like Brighton, we didn't show it in the first half but in general before that game both teams were on 20 points. I think we've shown that so far the challenge is to do it week in week out for one season, two seasons, three seasons, four seasons. That's where you need to do an unbelievable job as staff and the players need to do well and hope to build.
"I think it's possible [to be competitive without spending huge amounts] if you have a clear strategy and work very hard, if you try to develop it bit by bit."
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