Arsenal have identified Viktor Gyökeres as their primary striker target for the upcoming summer transfer window, viewing the Swedish forward as a proven goalscorer capable of leading the line at the highest level. Gyökeres has played a crucial role in guiding Sporting Club to consecutive league titles and is widely expected to depart the Portuguese side in the coming months.
His consistent goal-scoring record has made him one of the most sought-after forwards in Europe, and while he is believed to be open to a move to Arsenal, the Gunners face stiff competition. Several other top clubs are also tracking Gyökeres, and their interest could drive up the financial demands associated with any potential transfer.
Arsenal Facing Competition for Top Striker Target
Sporting are reportedly not looking to block Gyökeres’ departure, but the forward’s increasing popularity could make negotiations more complex. Arsenal is not alone in its pursuit, and other clubs with significant financial backing may attempt to outbid them. This poses a potential challenge for the Gunners, who are also exploring alternative options in the event that a deal for Gyökeres does not materialise.
As cited by Fichajes, Arsenal could turn their attention to Benjamin Sesko if they are unable to secure the signing of Gyökeres. The Slovenian forward was previously on Mikel Arteta’s radar during last summer’s transfer window and remains a player of interest, albeit now considered a secondary option.
Sesko Viewed as Viable Alternative to Gyökeres
Sesko has shown promise with his current club and possesses the attributes to develop into a top striker, but he lacks the experience and goal-scoring record of Gyökeres. While he represents a long-term project with potential, there are concerns about how quickly he could adapt to the intensity and demands of Premier League football.
Gyökeres, by contrast, is seen as a more immediate solution and a player who could make an instant impact. His experience, physicality and finishing ability align with Arsenal’s attacking needs. Although Sesko remains a credible option, prioritising Gyökeres may provide Arsenal with a better chance of bridging the gap to title success in the upcoming campaign.
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Gyökeres in my opinion would make an immediate impact whilst Sesko, although being younger but with a higher ceiling might not be as big an impact for some time.
What you said my be true but again consider that if Benjamin Sesko comes in he will not struggle to score goals because the presence of Saka,Rice, Odegaard and Martinelli feeding him with good crossing and attacking assistance will surely elevate him so Sesko wouldn’t struggle at Arsenal if we miss out on Gyokeres who i have personally heard that he might be announced as arsenal player as soon as next week.
If you play with inverted wingers like Saka and Martinelli, you will find that they simply cannot cross accurately with their weaker foot for any CF ,whether Sesko or Goykeres..The main objective of inverted wingers is to open up opportunities to shoot with their stronger foot by cutting insider their marker.Unfortunately this tactic is very predictable and involves movement into what is already a congested area.A classic example of this problem was the failure of Man City to break down deep lying Palace in the Cup final.Significantly, neither of their inverted wingers played against Bournemouth in a match which they won rather comfortably.Even the great Pep is not infallible.
Today’s wingers i think have been encouraged more to shoot than to be cross and assist masters.
Somewhat agree with you Grandad but both Martinelli and Saka can cross or cut balls back with their “weaker” foot or get it to the line and switch it to their predominant foot to cross. Nwaneri if deputising for Saka seems to be equally good with both feet and it’s still to be seen if a replacement/competition will be signed for our left wing.
But haven’t Man City been winning loads of trophies (Titles, a CL, FA cups, Carling Cups etc) playing this same Pep system?
Can’t be using an anomaly of a season like Man City have had to say that the inverted winger thing does now work.
Doesn’t Salah at Liverpool also play as an inverted Winger? Sadio Mane when at Liverpool also used to Cut inside to have shots and both him and Salah were a manace with tons of goals each season. They never crossed the ball that often rather they would always cut inside from both wings looking to have a pop.
And the teams with the inverted wingers have been at the Top of the PL in the last 6 or so seasons (Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal)..
And also Grandad, aren’t the orthodox wingers also very predictable as every team knows what they are trying to do? Runing to the byline and crossing into the box. It is also very predictable. What really matters is the execution. Be it the traditional wingers that just want to get to the byline and cross or do cut backs vs the inverted wingers that want to cut inside and have a pop. Just spamming crosses into the box will become very predictable if not executed well. Same as the inverted winger style. The execution of the system is what matters in my opinion.
Personally I fear VG may not be the player we need. When we played Sporting earlier in season in CL he was nowhere to be seen
Personally think with our creative.midfield and wingers Sesko may be a better option.
If Berta can’t deliver Gyokeres as Arteta’s preference then he falls into the same bracket as the ‘showman-braggard-publicity-conscious’ Edu.
It means there’s nothing elite about Berta. All noise same as Edu.
Arsenal should act fast befor its too late.
There’s more than just two options here:
Gyokeres
Sesko
David
Osimhen
Liam Delap
Vlahovic
Boniface
It seems like everyone is obsessed with the first two. Although Gyokeres is my main option, I wouldn’t b upset with any of the others
Could possibly throw Matteo Retegui in the mix too.
I don’t know if it’s fake news, but I seeing on YouTube that we’ve actually signed Gyokeres today.
I think it is fake as I’m now reading that we’ve also signed Isak😂
Maybe we got them both!
Then I woke up…
Yeah, and I fell for it😉. YouTube is worse than Football Insider.
I read we’d signed Alan Sheare🤣
It’s fake, the photo is obviously A1 if I’ve seen the same post as it’s not London Colney and the shirts are wrong.
It was Sky Sports News reports that I saw GB. Quite convincing TBH. I believed the first one until I looked along a bit further and saw the Izak one🤣
I am going for Gyokeres. Nothing should stop the deal. Arsenal can break the bank if need be. I can see Gyokeres as a Gunner
The move to Man Utd suits Gyokeres, he will fit straight in like a glove – the manager made Gyokeres into the superstar he is, the counter attacking system – completely opposite to Arsenals – is what made Gyokeres a superstar.
Sesko isn’t unready, or a project for the future, what are you basing it on, compared to Gyokeres goals in farmers league compared to Sesko’s 20 in Bundesliga? Sesko brings creativity and inventive goals, aside from the 1 on 1 power. When held at home 0.0 by Everton, it only needed that one breakthrough to keep in touch at top of the table.
Until Man Utd became favourite to sign Gyorkeres over the last 24hrs, and Arsenal started talking up they will be happy if it’s Sesko instead, there was real danger of Arsenal watching Sesko providing cutting edge at Liverpool or Chelsea, whilst Arsenals signing from farmers league finds Prem and living up to expectations hard work.
Moon Girl, it’s taken Sesko two seasons to score 27 goals in over 60 League games in the Bundesliga.
While he might come good here, he’s still a project.
Sesko is quite ready now to deliver 15-20 Prem goals next season. That is just as many as we can realistically expect from any brand new No. 9 signing next season, and having to settle into Prem football and Arteta’s system for first time.
One thing that isn’t really spoken about enough, a lot of squad and team change, at least initially takes Arsenal further away from the Premiership title, not closer to it. In the vast majority of cases, new players take time to settle in and start delivering – at least half a season before a team starts to gel – the example is what newly built PSG looked like first half to second half of last season, rolled over by us in first match. Other example is putting Timber in for White thinking it’s quality upgrade, but it’s a poorer team as the telepathic relationship between players was destroyed.
Of the bench and 11 from last Sunday.
Certainly gone Jorginho, Neto, Sterling, Tierney,
Likely gone Zinchenko,
Might also be gone Kiwior, Partey, Trossard,
The only certainty to come in and fill the holes and deliver when needed in first team, Nelson, Vieira
That amount of churn and rebuilding of senior squad members almost certainly writes off top 2 finish in PL next season. So the excitement of “rebuilding summers” come with a downside.
Not that Sesko is a mere “project” not ready for first team – but young project sharing with Havertz might actually be less riskier with cohesion.
Let’s call a spade etc, VG has been banging them in at tje top level in Portugal!!!! Slightly better than Scotland
But how can Gyökeres fit in like a glove at Man United just because Amorim was his manager at their previous club?
Man United and the squad they currently have is so poor and disjointed that it might take them another 2 to 3 years to get back to being a Top 6 contender later on CL contenders. That’s if Amorim gets everything right. But from what I have seen from the way he plays, Man United are in for a Ten Hag kind of period once again.
Man United have to nearly refresh the whole team right now. It normally takes a bit of time for a manager to get their systems together.
I agree with everything you said about The Manure struggling to get top 4 next season – and as long as they persist with outdated 1990s 5 across the back, with their manager saying the two out wide not helping the middle of the pitch are wing backs so not 5 across the back, they can forget top 4. But with Cunha at 10 and Gyokeres at 9 they will have a front 3 that every defence has problems.
Gyokeres fits that system like a glove because he is a counter attacking player making hay in a counter attacking system. He may look like he has scored a lot of goals, but subtract the mountain of penalties, the free kicks, and the goals scored on a breakaway, and he has scored nothing. Against quality low Premiership blocks, two banks of 4, totally untested.
But to say that he fits in like a glove at United does not add up. You can’t say that a player fits into a team like a glove when that team is fighting in the relegation zones (16th). In order to say that a player fits into a team like a glove has to have evidence of that particular team just needing that type of player to get them to a certain higher level.
So you bring in Cunha and Gyökeres into a brand new team that has not shown any signs that it can compete at the highest level, they still need a new midfield, defenders, wingers, a keeper etc.
To me that phrase (Fits like a glove) is more appropriate to stable team like Arsenal who just need a little tweak upfront and midfield in order to make that next step. Gyökeres turning up in a team struggling to defend, control possession, create chances and score etc doesn’t make sense to me. How do you know that he will not turn out like all the other players struggling in that team? An overall poor team like Man United with one or two better players in it hardly does much. It will be so unbalanced that even those two good players will suffer from the overall poverty of the team.
And Amorim has got to show that he can hack it in the EPL before anything. And in my opinion he had done even worse than Ten Hag that he replaced.
And if you start taking away goals from a striker the what is the point? Take away certain goals from Isak and let’s see how good he is. Take away certain types of goals from Haaland and lets see how good he is. Take away certain types of assists from a No10 and lets see how good they are. Etc. So you basically took certain goals away from Gyökeres but would you do the same for Isak, Osimhen, Sesko etc?
I am not having a go at you, but just trying to play devils advocate a bit. 😊😊
Even a Devils advocate has to admit, Amorims counter attack football, and Arteta’s aggressive baller system are two completely different things. Likewise players at 9 are completely different things. You don’t see four number 9’s, when you point out Gyokeres, Sesko, Isak and Osimhen – you see apple, pears, oranges and lemons. Arsenal need a 9 who is a mobile and technical baller, who can fit in an aggressive attacking possession based playing style trying to unlock low block every week. Lautaro Martinez would fit this Arteta “all to press and defend out of possession” like a glove, so would Henry. We know Gyokeres would fit Amorims back peddling counter attack 4 3 2 1 system, because we know he did.
Each incoming player fits a system, being the most important consideration in who you go for. Each player will shine best in the system that suits them, get no Michelin stars in a system that does not suit them. Example: Berta excitedly bought Felix for £113M, but he couldn’t be shoehorned to fit Athletics’s system at all once he got there, we need to be awake to this as we sign our Marquee number 9. Running brilliantly at Kempton means little when rocking up at Cheltenham on chilly spring day.
There’s Apples, Pears, Oranges and Lemons – and horses choose to eat different ones depending which course they are at. Though I feed ours brandy-snaps. (My daddies filthy rich so we have race horses, is why I mostly don’t go weekend game, go to midweek game when one of Daddies friends buys us a meal in hospitality suite and I drink everyone else’s complimentary cocktail!).
Hope that clear for you.
But Gyokere plays a more aggressive type of football as compared to someone like Sesko who you seem to prefer.
For example, Sesko’s style, technical ability and stature is very similar to that of our own Havertz that many of our fans don’t rate at all. Just watch Sesko play and look at the way he positions himself, drops etc. Look at the goals he scores. He is very similar to Havertz.
On the other hand Gyökeres is very aggressive, drifts to the wings like Henry used to do and takes on players. He has that very bullish, aggressive, rough bulldozing style where he causes mayhem to CB’s. .
I was for Sesko since last summer and this season. But my mind was absolutely changed when I watched Gyökeres absolutely terrorise Man City in the CL. Then we ourselves played Sporting Lisbon, so I got another chance to watch Gyökeres play, OMG he absolutely bullied our defenders in that away game. He had Saliba and Gabriel in panic mode all game even if he had absolutely zero help from his own team.
They would pump the ball up to him with no support whatsoever but I think he won more than 90% of the duel against both Saliba and Gabriel. The guy was feeding on scraps but kept on skinning or bullying two of the top 3 best CB in Europe (Saliba and Gabriel). He was running the channels attracting Saliba and then spinning him aggressively and running to towards our goal and having a shot. And he would run the other channel and bully Gabriel etc..
And he ended up as Sportings MOTM even if he absolutely fed on crumbs all game.
I really liked his hold up play, his quick and bullish spinning of our CB’s all the time. His aggression and tireless work.
On the other hand Sesko is not as aggressive and bullish as Gyökeres. He is big and smooth, slow etc. He is no different from Havertz style. Just watch a few clips of both Sesko and Havertz and tell me that they are not similar in style and stature.
Then compare both their styles to that of Gyökeres. I think Gyökeres is in his prime and very aggressive so he should be ready to integrate into the team. Isn’t that what many fans have been calling for? No more projects players / potential but experienced players to get us over the line?
👍😊
And also just because Gyökeres was very good in Amorims system at Sporting Lisbon does not mean it will translate to Man United with completely different players, league, standards etc..
For example, Ten Hag took Martinez and Antony with him from Ajax to Man United and how did that translate for all of them in the EPL?
I am not saying that Gyökeres won’t fit in Amorim’s new Man United team, but until Amorim can show that his system can be stable and competitive in the tough EPL then I do think that Gyökeres is walking into a very poor Man United team struggling in 16th place. Before you can think about the icing on the cake (Striker) or No10, you have got to get the basic foundations of the team in order (Goal keeper, CB’s, Fullbacks, CM winger then that striker and finally a No10..
To me the current Man United team is very poor, unbalanced and very easy to beat. So bringing in the icing sugar (Striker) when your defense and CM is as poor as it is currently the I can bet that Gyökeres would flop having such a team that is not balanced.
So which Fruit you suggest we eat because you never mention the best for our belly.
I’ll let Zola answer for me – try Le Ventre de Paris as your next holiday read.
It seems like it’s a bit of a shoot out between Sesko and Gyokeres amongst the fans.
Assuming they both come to Prem and one of them come to Arsenal, I sincerely hope that the one we get doesn’t flop while the other fires on all cylinders!
There will be “I told you so’s” for years!
Some fans cant wait for that sentence. “I told you so”. Truth is no striker will be bad for Arsenal. Kai could have scored 20 goals this season if not for his injury. This is a team where Merino is doing well as a striker. I just believe Gyokeres is our man. That man can score from any angle just like Kane.
I tend to agree Tim.In the January window we could have bought a seasoned goalscorer from a British Club for 10m or less and he would have bridged the gap which we filled by playing a midfielder as a central striker.He would not have been a long term solution but he is better than Merino is up front, no disrespect to him.