Chelsea will step up attempts to hijack Arsenal’s bid for Mykhailo Mudryk by holding talks with Shakhtar Donetsk over the winger on Wednesday. Arsenal are leading the race to sign Mudryk after making a second offer of £44.2m plus add-ons. But Chelsea are interested in the Ukraine international and it is understood negotiations are moving in the right direction. Talks are due to continue with Shakhtar’s director of football, Darijo Srna, in London. It remains to be seen whether Chelsea would be attractive to Mudryk, who appears to have his heart set on Arsenal. However, Shakhtar have been holding out for £85m and Arsenal are yet to go that high. Chelsea could muscle in by offering more money. Chelsea are continuing to try to sign the Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernández from Benfica. Fernández has angered Benfica by returning to Argentina without their permission and told the club again on Tuesday that he does not want to play for them again. The 21-year-old is desperate to move to Stamford Bridge. Benfica are trying to hold on to him until the summer but are likely to let him go if Chelsea make an offer, spread over three instalments, of €127m (£111.9m). Chelsea maintain that they do not want to overpay for Fernández. They are happy to walk away and resume negotiations in the summer if a fee cannot be agreed. Leeds have signed the Austria defender Max Wöber from Red Bull Salzburg on a four-and-a-half-year deal for a fee that could reach €20m (£17.7m) with add-ons. The 24-year-old, who can operate at centre-back and left-back, played under Jesse Marsch at Salzburg and is Leeds’s first January signing. Leeds said: “He now links up once again with head coach Jesse Marsch along with his former Salzburg teammates Brenden Aaronson and Rasmus Kristensen. Wöber will wear the No 39 shirt during his time at Leeds and could feature for the first time in Sunday’s FA Cup third-round tie at Cardiff.” Wöber, who has 13 Austria caps, started at Rapid Vienna and joined Ajax in 2017 before moving to Sevilla, initially on loan, in early 2019. He became the Austrian Bundesliga’s most expensive signing in August 2019 when joining Salzburg and made 125 appearances for the club, winning the Austrian league and cup double three times in a row. Southampton are closing in on the signing of Croatia forward Mislav Orsic from Dinamo Zagreb as Nathan Jones attempts to strengthen the Premier League’s bottom side. A fee of around £7.5m for the 30-year-old, who scored in Croatia’s victory over Morocco in the third-place playoff at the World Cup, is expected to be agreed in the coming days. Southampton have also been linked with a move for 20-year-old midfielder Carlos Alcaraz from Racing in Argentina. The midfielder is expected to cost around £17m but has also been heavily scouted by Wolves. Leicester have expressed an interest in signing Martin Dubravka after Newcastle terminated the goalkeeper’s loan move to Manchester United early. Newcastle have been tracking both Youri Tielemens and James Maddison and may attempt to include the Slovakia international to strike a deal this month.