Arsenal are the best-placed club to sign Viktor Gyokeres this summer and have made a salary offer to the player’s camp, but they won’t submit a bid to Sporting CP until after next week.
Portuguese outlet A Bola report that Arsenal are the best-placed club to sign Sporting CP striker Viktor Gyokeres this summer, with the player aware of the interest and the Gunners offering a net salary of £7m a year. The club would hope to sign Gyokeres on a deal lasting four or five years.
Despite Arsenal’s apparent interest in a transfer, A Bola claim they haven’t submitted a bid to Sporting yet.
Arsenal are aware that Sporting have the chance to win the Portuguese league this weekend, and the cup next week, and they don’t want any distractions ahead of those two huge matches.
The same outlet claim Gyokeres’ summer departure is “a given” for the Sporting hierarchy, and Arsenal are willing to pay what he costs at the right time. The striker has always intended to return to England and play in the Premier League at some stage.
Pete O’Rourke writes for Football Insider that Arsenal have now made Gyokeres their top striker target for the summer window, though they’ll face competition from Manchester United.
Manchester United would appear to be a much less appealing destination on first glance, but the club could still secure Champions League football by winning the Europa League, and Ruben Amorim previously managed Gyokeres with Sporting.
Alex Crook recently reported for talkSPORT that Arsenal’s Premier League rivals believe the Gunners are the favourites for Gyokeres, and that the player favours the transfer to north London.
But the delay waiting for the end of Sporting’s season will allow United to play their Europa League final first. Should they win it, nothing is guaranteed.
According to previous reports, Gyokeres has a verbal agreement to leave Sporting for a bid in the region of €65-70m (£55m-59.2m) this summer.
The 26-year-old now has 52 goals and 13 assists in 50 games for Sporting this season, though those figures include 19 penalties.