Arsenal have spent the last two months in discussions over a potential deal to sign Viktor Gyokeres, yet the striker remains a Sporting Club player.
The Swedish international is widely regarded as one of the most in-demand forwards in world football and currently plays for a club well known for developing and selling elite talent. Sporting Club have previously sold players such as Bruno Fernandes and Cristiano Ronaldo to the Premier League, establishing a strong reputation for producing world-class individuals.
Arsenal remain optimistic that a deal will be concluded, although the length of the negotiations has surprised many observers. Given the club’s financial strength and Gyokeres’ desire to take the next step in his career, some fans are beginning to question why the agreement has yet to be finalised.
Negotiations with a Tough Seller
Sporting have demonstrated over the years that they are a firm and difficult club to negotiate with. Their commitment to securing the highest possible value for their assets is evident in past transfers, and they are applying the same approach in talks involving Gyokeres.
Arsenal have so far been unwilling to meet the Portuguese club’s valuation, even though they remain determined to secure the striker’s signature. While some might argue that the simplest solution would be to meet the asking price, the club’s current leadership appears committed to a more disciplined strategy.
Andrea Berta’s Role in Arsenal’s Transfer Strategy
Andrea Berta has emerged as a key figure in Arsenal’s pursuit of Gyokeres. Rather than rushing into an inflated transfer, Berta is showing that he is capable of navigating complex negotiations with a long-term view. His approach suggests a desire to ensure the club secures value for money rather than simply spending for the sake of speed.
Another director might have concluded the deal quickly by simply meeting Sporting’s terms. However, Berta is demonstrating that he is willing to take a patient and calculated route. His focus remains on securing the right player at the right price without allowing the club to be pressured into overpaying.
Arsenal supporters will hope the method pays off soon, with the need for attacking reinforcements becoming increasingly pressing as the new season approaches.
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As an Arsenal fan, I believe that Berta is not fastening up this deal, but if Arteta wants to lose most of his senior players, let them sit down and buy no no-good finisher. They will receive the worst.
VG is the one suffering all the fight…soon he will be suspended by sporting and we havnt cloee out the deal yet…they are pilling up charges to us against VG at the end of the day
We ain’t getting him at this rate, the whole saga is looking really bad for Arsenal, just get the deal done and get him into the set up before the season starts 🙄
So you’d be one who goes for “spending for the sake of speed” then I guess? 🙂
It’s basically already done mate. It’s just dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s at this point.
Though I do wish the Sporting owner would just stop posturing, accept reality, and let it be finalized, too.
I think Berta isn’t really convinced about Gyokeres, otherwise the deal would’ve been completed already
I hope Berta has also been contacting Sesko’s entourage as the plan B
I wonder how many people will be convinced by Berta come September 1st.
You cannot credit him the signing of Zubimendi as this was completed first by Edu and finalised by Ayto.
This leaves Kepa – who was simply a £5m release fee and Norgaard who was hardly in demand.
I judge our activity by players I see signed and wearing the Arsenal shirt and Berta has been extremely disappointing.
He is no improvement whatsoever on Edu or Sanlehi and is light years behind David Dein..
I believe many people will be impressed if Berta manages to lower Sesko’s price tag and sign him by using Gyokeres’ news
Gai, can you really take a bet Sesko would do better than Gyokeres?
Many lost money betting that Merino would be a great flop as a false 9 same as Havertz. But they have done well so far. Gyokeres imo has better experience as CF than all we have at Arsenal at the moment.
Nobody knows whether they will be suitable for Arteta’s tactics or not, but Sesko is much younger, better aerially, his goal tally wasn’t inflated by penalties/ free-kicks and would likely have better resale value if he flops
Sesko scored 13 league goals, Gyokeres scored 39g, which is 3times more than Sesko
Sesko scored 4penalties while Gyokeres scored 12, so counting just non penalty goals, Sesko has 9(laughable🤣) while Gyokeres has 27 which is still 3 times more than Sesko
Are you seriously regarding free kicks as inflated goals, that’s literally the hardest kind of goal to score, you’re just coping cause Sesko is a bum who’s only great at headers, asides that, he’s average at everything else
Regardless of how you spin the narrative, Sesko is not on the same planet as Gyokeres, they are worlds apart
What’s the point,we have been left behind and down for the past 3 seasons now,does it really mattered how muah Gyko cost, the most important thing is go for him if that ll settle our trophyless campaign season in season out,we played very well but have nothing to show for itand next it ll be Chelsea coming behind to win the trophy right under our nostril,what are we even doing.
Stop projecting, it’s hopelessly desperate of you to not only think Berta prefers Sesko but to also think same of the fanbase when literally every poll and most fan accounts are clamouring for Gyokeres, it was just Arteta pushing for Sesko, we would have ended up with Sesko if Edu was still around cause he is a yes man, Berta has a spine so he gave the fanbase what they wanted: a proven goalscorer not another project potential wannabe
I don’t think VG is short of suitors at the moment but he only wants to play for Arsenal. Other than traumatizing the player, let Arsenal just folk out the money and pay for this lad. He’s coming to us knowing that he has to put us somewhere, I guess he will be a hit at Arsenal
The fact remains if the news about a transfer is on the Club’s website – then it is true.
If the news about a transfer is not on the club’s website then it is anybodies mouth ache. That is the value of the ‘the news’ that is not on the club’s website pure unadulterated mouth ache- nothing else.
Well, if it’s on the club site then the news is “official”, but it can (and often is) carried by reputable sports news organisations before appearing on the Arsenal site. For example, the BBC has carried reports, correct reports, of Arsenal’s signings – that’s actual signings, not speculation about players who may be signed – prior to their appearance “officially”.
Yes it can land on a reputable site BUT in every transfer window Arsenal are claimed contact with around a hundred players. This in my opinion makes it almost inevitable that one mouth ache will get one right.
Yet he blew 52 million without batting an eyelid on Noni
Noni will prove to be better value
Completely agree mate. Surprised Kroenke hasn’t stepped in and told him to just get it done! I can see Chelsea grabbing the money off us for Noni and putting in a full cash offer for Gyokores and swiping him from us with an 8 year contract
Your surprised ?
I be surprised if Stan Koronke knows who Gyokeres is lol
Four weeks to go and not one attacker signed. Bye bye Mr Arteta. If you ever have a discussion on the worst ever signing look no further than Andrea Berta – absolutely terrible.
I wonder o. To a direct rival for a player already pushed to the fringes of the team. It’s all nonsense to me! I wonder what that may communicate to Gyokeres himself. I pity him; if only bigger & more serious clubs had been in need of a new no. 9. He may come bt he’s having to go through hell to get here.
So we are using a “tough seller” as the excuse now?
Sporting want a fair market price for their player. Berta seems incapable of negotiating that.
Yet Arsenal fans celebrate the signing of Kepa and Norgaard as if they are world class players.
I fear for Arsenal this season with this man negotiating transfers. I just don’t think 3 months is enough time..
But that misses the point, I think. It’s a negotiation between two sides – both think that what they are offering is the correct amount.
Of course, Sporting wants the best price for Gyokeres, just as Arsenal would if the position was reversed but that’s not the same thing as saying, in this case, that the buying club should just give in.
If Arsenal gets a reputation for “folding” under pressure of negotiations, then every club they attempt to buy from with toughen their stance knowing they’ll get the fee in the end.
As for Berta’s negotiating tactics, don’t forget it took Edu almost all of the ten weeks of last summer’s window to negotiate for two players – Calafiori and Merino. There are still nearly six weeks left in this window.
No need to panic, Gyokeres is 27 bro and he is not Rhonaldo nor Messi for us to break a bank.
Some people are suggesting we should just pay the asking price. So if we “just pay the asking price” every time we buy a player……we end up buying fewer players and have selling clubs taking the mickey. Yes, this deal is very frustrating but come on, none of us has ever negotiated the purchase of a multi-million pound footballer. Let’s not pretend we know how to do it better than those who do it for a living.
Mikey,
Maybe Arsenal have learned their lesson in overpaying for player’s, after over paying for Havertz. But I doubt it to be honest.
I think Arsenal(Berta) is encouraged by the fact that Sporting had an agreement with Gyokeres to let him leave for a lesser amount, hence the strike by Gyokeres. These negotiations have been nothing but brutal, honestly.
Let’s wait and see….
It’s too early to judge him.
We’ve done well to get Zubimendi
We don’t know what is going on behind the doors
Some clubs play hardball and you need to take time negotiating
If we don’t get Gyokeres it will be disappointing and sort of embarrassing but I’m hopeful we will get him.
Worst case scenario, we don’t get him, there are others strikers and wingers
But Let’s hope we get him.
Sportings president is an arse. He is putting obstacles there to make it difficult. We have shown massive patience in this deal.👏👏
Spot on Reggie.
In my opinion, I think the deal is done but they need time to complete, for example, medical tests so that VG can go with them to Asia. Then the moving truck was in Portugal picking up VG’s accessories. Why would they do that if the deal is not almost done.
Personally, I think that everyone who has said that the deal was done when it was not should probably think hard about stopping talking nonsense.
I think it’s understandable, although certainly infuriating.
After all, him making all that fuss anyone would think that his club is close to losing their best player.
Not understandable imo. Varandas doesn’t have behave this way but it does seem to be consistent with his past. Compare to the attitudes expressed by Steve Parrish at Palace for example.
It may well be something to do with the comments that have been made by Gyokores in the media. Saying that there was a “gentleman’s agreement” about this or that and his general attitude towards the chairman isn’t calculated to ensure a smooth deal, is it.
I’m not saying it was or wasn’t justified on his part (nobody knows for sure), but it’s pretty obviously soured relations between chairman and player and, unfortunately, that’s being reflected in the negotiations with Arsenal.
Yes, the bad blood is quite clear but wouldn’t be present unless other factors were present in the situation. imo, Reggie hit the nail on the head.
This is not new. There were similar protracted sagas involving Bruno Fernandez and Pedro Porro to United and Tottenham respectively.
There is a report of Bruno Fernandes making an angry call to the Sporting President because he was frustrated with their high valuation which threatened the move. This is not too different from what Gyokeres has done. Eventually, a deal was done at a figure lower than what Sporting wanted.
Don’t understand the point of the article
Why is there a mystic about a man doing his job.. any other sporting director would do the same. He held out for a slightly lower price not a huge deal.. Probably should have wrapped it up when the window opened like Liverpool did with wirtz, instead of playing cat and mouse with sesko for 3 weeks. Shows a lack on conviction by him/the club if anything.
You say any SD should do the same. Edu didn’t. He took almost all last summer’s window to sign two players (Calafiori and Merino). I don’t recall too many complaints about that on this site at the time, yet Berta is attacked now for being slow!
Also, Liverpool made three bids for Wirtz before they got him, so it wasn’t all done and dusted quite as quickly as it seems.
Finally, we don’t really know (that’s “know”, not guess) that Arsenal/Berta played “cat and mouse” over Sesko, do we? That may have been the gist of what was reported, but a glance at stories on this site (for weeks now) indicates we can’t believe everything that’s reported.
One issue here is that people tried to make out that Berta was some kind of guru who was a massive upgrade on Edu. Our transfers to date however have been solid rather than spectacular. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but so far there is little to suggest that Edu could not have facilitated the same signings.
I don’t believe there are necessarily good or bad comparisons to make between Edu’s prior and Berta’s current transfer windows because the circumstances of each window were/are very different. Coming into last season’s window the prevailing thought was that there were serious PSR considerations restricting acquisition activities and putting much more of an emphasis on getting funds in the door. I felt that Edu was ultimately very effective in dealing with a very difficult outgoing transfers.
My opinion is that Berta’s actions in this window (what we know of them) could qualify as a course in how to manipulate the market effectively. Because of the previous improvement in the club’s long-term planning and transfer practices, I believe Berta’s job will be much easier in this regard.
2nd half of last sentence s/b: I believe Berta’s job should be much easier in regard to outgoing transfers.
If arsenal didn’t sign gyokeres we end up winning not this season,I hate arsenal transfer News please you guys should act fast before other clubs hijacked him besides he has chosen arsenal..
Madueke OFFICIAL. He wears no. 20 shirt
vacated by Jorghino ex Chelsea also. Welcome and good luck!
I don’t think Berta will come out on top in the negotiations on add ons. Agreement with that gentleman of a president of theirs is the only way. And to be fair I don’t think they’re asking for too much for a player of Gyokeres’ quality and experience, even though they are requesting out of their agreement with the player.
Berta’s performance is assessed not only against incomings but also outgoings. Usually Arsenal find it hard to find a proper receiving club for leavers at reasonable fees. Last season Ramsdale and Rowe fetched relatively good monies. Load of others went out for free or for a negligible amount. This summer we expect many leavers so we shall see where they go, at what price, resale value etc. Then assess the plus and minus sides of Berta’s first time job.
Nketiah went for £30 million last summer too..
Yeah thanks, good business for a Palace sub.
This is Berta’s first window. Lets judge him a) at the end of the window and b) after 2 or 3 windows for a proper assessment
Is he also involved in ensuring Nwaneri signed a long term deal? That’s surely good buisness also ! Though we can’t know for sure re all the rumours that Nwaneri might be bought by a rival.
There are some serious rumour mongers out there just to create noise
They’ll find Lord Lucan before we sign Gyokeres at this rate. 😂🤣🤦♂️