Tensions continue to spill over in Viktor Gyokeres’ Arsenal transfer saga, with Sporting CP threatening disciplinary action as the player holds a training strike.
With Arsenal and Sporting CP still at least a few million euros apart in their valuations of Viktor Gyokeres, the player has made his desires clear by refusing to return to training with his current club.
Gyokeres feels he’s been betrayed by Sporting CP, believing he had a verbal agreement with the club to sell him for €60m + €10m in add-ons this summer. Arsenal’s latest bid already surpassed those figures, but Sporting are still refusing to accept.
Sporting deny any such agreement exists, and club president Frederico Varandas is now threatening disciplinary action against the player for his strike.
“We’re calm. Everything will be resolved with the closing of the market, a heavy fine, and an apology to the group,” Varandas said. “If they (interested clubs) don’t want to pay fair market value for Viktor, we are very comfortable with that for the next three years (the length of his contract).
“If the geniuses who are devising this strategy think that this puts pressure on me to facilitate the exit, they are not only completely wrong but are also making the player’s exit even more complicated.
“No one is above the club’s interests, whoever they may be.”
Sami Mokbel reports for BBC Sport that talks remain ongoing between Arsenal and Sporting, and the Gunners are still hopeful of striking a deal.
Varandas has at least committed to accepting less than Gyokeres’ €100m (£86.4m) release clause, but evidently not the €70m the player wants them to accept, nor the Arsenal offer slightly above that figure.
Both clubs are likely to be growing frustrated that the situation still isn’t resolved, now that pre-season training is underway.
Henry Winter reports that Gyokeres’ agent cut is also a stumbling block at the moment. Arsenal may well ask why the agent deserves a significant cut after failing to hold Sporting to the agreement he claimed to have with them and failing to help the clubs reach a compromise so far.