By Chris Wright
Arsenal striker Eduardo da Silva is within 48 hours of completing a move to Shakhtar Donetsk, after agreeing personal terms with the Ukranian giants yesterday following a week of negotiations.
The Croatian international has already passed a medical at the club under the supervision of Shakhtar chief medical officer Francisco Biosca, and has also sought the advice of his national team manager Slaven Bilic before rubber-stamping the move.
Bilic is quoted in The Daily Mail as saying;
“I spoke with Eduardo. He was very pleased with the move to Shakhtar. He is going to a strong league. This season they will once again play in the Champions League, have many difficult matches and this is excellent for the national team.
The captain of Shakhtar is Darijo Srna [who also plays in the Croatian national side] and in the team there are a lot of Brazilians so I have no doubt that Eduardo will quickly adapt to Donetsk.”
Arsenal have also omitted the striker’s name from the 27-man list of players that will be travelling to Austria for a pre-season tour this week.
Whilst it’s apparent that Eduardo isn’t ever going to be the same player he was pre-leg knack, Shakhtar are still getting themselves a pretty shrewd operator and the £6 million fee means that both camps can be satisfied in the knowledge that they are getting a very reasonable deal – with Arsenal just about coming out on top for my money.