Arsenal have accelerated their interest in landing a prolific striker at Emirates Stadium in this transfer window. They have zeroed in on a couple of targets and now it depends on Mikel Arteta and Sporting Director, Andrea Berta to finalize a deal with one of them.
Recently, the North Londoners made some progress in Sporting Lisbon’s Viktor Gyokeres deal. As per reports via CNN Portugal and newspaper Record suggested that Arsenal have met Gyokeres’ agent as the Gunners are close to submitting an official bid for the 27-year-old.
There are reports that Gyokeres has told his agent, Hasan Cetinkaya that he would prefer a move to Arsenal over Manchester United, Chelsea or Juventus.
However, it is clear now that Sporting will not allow the Swedish international to leave the club for anything less than his €100 million (£83.8m) release clause. It is contrary to the prior reports that suggested that Gyokeres could be available this summer for much less.
In the meantime, Arsenal are continuing their pursuit for RB Leipzig star Benjamin Sesko. The 22-year-old Slovenian is still raw but has great potential to become a worldclass striker. He scored 21 goals last season and could leave the Bundesliga outfit as Leipzig failed to qualify for the Champions League.
There are reports that Arteta prefers a move for Sesko, but Berta is more inclined towards Gyokeres. The Sweden International is someone, who comes with more experience and could be more equipped to handle with the pressure that Arteta and Arsenal will face next season. Meanwhile, Sesko could be a future superstar.
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What did Sporting CP president say about Gyokeres and his agent?
Recently, Sporting’s president, Frederico Varandas lashed out at Gyokeres and his agent on Wednesday and denied the reported gentleman’s contract that would have allowed the player to leave for a fee much less than his release clause, supposedly paying back for his loyalty.
“I can guarantee that Viktor Gyokeres will not leave for €60m plus €10m because I never promised that. The game the agent is playing is only making the situation worse,” stated Sporting CP president on A Bola on Wednesday.
“To date, Sporting has not received an offer for Viktor Gyokeres, neither today nor last season. I said this: ‘It’s not worth setting a value because I don’t know what will happen in a year’s time,'” he added. “I don’t know if it will be €40m, €60m, or €80m. What I can guarantee is that I will not demand €100m.”
Varandas has put up a firm stance suggesting that any number of blackmails, threats and insults would not work on him, insisting that a club would need to make a substantial offer for the 27-year-old to lure him away from the Portuguese capital.
Following Varandas’ statement, Gyokeres has removed all the references of Sporting CP from his social media handles. There’s some uncertainty surrounding his future following the statements as he has three years left on his current contract.
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