Viktor Gyökeres is undoubtedly one of the most lethal strikers in European football. His 54 goals in 52 appearances last season speak volumes.
This summer, he’s a man under the spotlight. Following a reported fallout with Sporting CP, the Swedish forward is widely expected to leave the Estádio José Alvalade.
On Friday, the Sporting President said “Threats, blackmail, and insults don’t work on me. I can confirm that Gyökeres will NOT leave for €60 million plus €10 million in add-ons.”
At Just Arsenal, we recently relayed a report suggesting Gyökeres fully expects to be playing in the Premier League. And judging by the latest developments, it appears he already knows where.
And then the latest news today is Florian Plettenberg revealed: Sporting CP have given Viktor Gyökeres the assurance that he will be allowed to leave in the summer for €60–70 million! As exclusively revealed in October 2024 and now confirmed by his agent Hasan Cetinkaya!
Arsenal emerge as frontrunners
Within the Premier League, it’s been Arsenal and Manchester United leading the charge. But now, reports from Portugal indicate Gyökeres has made his decision, and it won’t be Old Trafford.
According to Record, the 27-year-old has turned down a move to Manchester United. His entourage have officially informed INEOS that the club is no longer being considered for his next step.
From a Gooner’s perspective, could this signal he’s now edging closer to the Emirates Stadium?
Last weekend, it emerged that Arsenal was his preferred destination. Shortly after, reports claimed his agent held positive talks with the Gunners. Then came confirmation of his price tag. Now, he’s ruled out Manchester United.
It certainly feels like Gyökeres is lining himself up for a summer switch to Arsenal.
What does it mean for Šeško?
What this means for Arsenal’s pursuit of Benjamin Šeško remains to be seen. But right now, all signs point to Gyökeres as the club’s marquee striker target for summer 2025.
Does this sound like good news to you Gooners?
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We are obviously stringing two players along to get the best deal but need to make a decisive move for one of them soon
Could we be trying to sign both of them?
That makes sense to me.
That makes more sense.
That would be great, but I don’t think we have the money or space in the squad for both unless others leave (can’t see Jesus leaving right now, though it’s possible, definitely not havertz)? I think Nabilo’s scenario is more likely to be the case.
We have the money mate
Lets not start that lol
Having the money is one thing. But do you think we would actually want them both? To be honest, I’m not sure
There could well be money but what about squad composition? Assuming a squad is composed of 25 senior players, it translates to two players per outfield position and 3 goalkeepers. We know Havertz is now considered a Centre forward, that leaves room for one more, if Jesus won’t be registered.
If you sign two centre forwards plus Havertz, there’s one position that will lack a backup, because CF will take 3 slots, 4 if you register Jesus. This brings us back to the issue of having a million left backs; unbalanced squad.
We have three wingers in Saka, Martinelli and Trossard. This means there’s a slot left for a fourth winger. We are short in numbers here, unless we reintegrate Nelson back into the squad. We are also short of quality in the winger position.Besides, I don’t think we can afford to sign two centre forwards and still be able to bring in a top class winger which is a necessity.
Onyango: Agreed. Signing both isn’t possible and doesn’t make sense.
Besides, our defensive midfield isn’t competitive with Zubimendi alone. Making money out of letting expensive Kai Havertz leave is an option. Jesus has to leave too. This would allow upgrading of the left wing as well
So if we sign one of them and he gets a long term injury, what happens next Tyndale?
Because, for sure, the one we didn’t sign will have gone else elsewhere, that’s for sure?
Are you overlooking Havertz? Two players should be enough for every outfield position. But in the rare occurrence that both are injured like it happened to Havertz & Jesus, you start looking at a versatile player from another position ( e.g. Merino) or someone from the academy.
Letting go of Kai would not be a wise move. There’s no guarantee the new centre forward signing would hit the ground running. At least we already know what we can get from Havertz. And Jesus can’t be sold because he’s injured!
How much money can we realistically spend, net? I find it difficult to judge. There’s ffp to think about, but even the richest clubs rarely spend huge amounts without bringing something back in?
Spending 200m on strikers, plus 50+ on zubimendi, plus 50+ on a winger, plus whatever else, with, say, 50m coming back from sales (which seems generous but it’s hard to know) – you rarely see any clubs spending like that in one summer? There must be a reason beyond owners being tight?
Also, this is the kind of thing we used to criticise other clubs for – understand the idea was against being bankrolled by a billionaire owner, but it’s still buying success (and even Chelsea managed to bring in large fees when selling players to offset the spend slightly). I get it seems more necessary now, but it still doesn’t sit right with me. I loved the way Wenger built his successful squads with hidden gems and very smart signings, and always saw it as a strange kind of betrayal (probably not the right word exactly) when we started buying players like Sanchez and ozil and handing out 300k PW contacts. Probably just my naivety, but did change my view of the club.
Lemme ask you this, do you think Arsenal (and Arsene) , were building squads with gems because they wanted to or because they had to?
EPL clubs make lots of money today from TV money alone. If you don’t spend,you’re bound to be overtaken. While I like the idea of identifying gems, I don’t think it’s sustainable. Ideally you need a blend of gems and ‘ready made’ stars. Some gems like Martinelli work. But for every Martinelli you have a Marquinhos. This was the case even under Wenger. For Wilshere, there was also Ryo Miyiachi. It’s a mixed bag with gems.
Well, it’s because the landscape has changed. Wenger came with in depth knowledge of Henry, Petit, Vieira, grimandi and garde – I think having worked with all of them before. Aside from that, we were ahead of the game in scouting, it seemed. We were a bit like Brighton, and no one else had that capability to consistently bring in unknown players who could do well. Other clubs have now caught up, and I think the standard is much higher in the league now, so it’s much less likely a player doing well in Sweden will be about to come and do well in England.
Without Wenger, we’d have been like everyone else, trying to get the best players we could within the budget, and would have tended more towards UK players. We weren’t always making cheap signings, though – Henry, pires and wiltord and even players like Gilberto weren’t cheap for the time, but they weren’t crazy money, and were the second wave, I suppose.
Yes we bought plenty of cheap players who didn’t turn out well, but that was part of the strategy – some don’t work out, but at least they don’t cost too much. Players like Fabio Vieira not working out are a much bigger deal, surely (and he was just a bit expensive – get it wrong with gyokeres or sesko, and it’s really silly; could easily have happened with havertz).
Anyway, you are right, and I do understand, I just don’t like it (it’s more the impact of a general increase in money in the game than an arsenal-specific thing, I suppose) – but I do think it’s hypocritical to have criticised Chelsea and city for buying titles, when we’d always have done the same. It’s pure jealousy then, not principle.
The difference is Davi, as far as I am aware, we didn’t break any rules – to date, chelsea have and city 115 are awaiting the outcome of their court case.
These criticisms started well before any court cases – *for most people*, I’d wager it’s nothing to do with rules, it was a sense of it being unfair because first Chelsea, then city were able to buy success.
Arsenal, and Premier League clubs generally, make a lot of money, particularly through TV. I think this has evened out things a bit. Everyone can spend a bit now, unlike when Chelsea and City had a massive advantage over others. This probably explains why you can have as many as 10 teams competing for European places right to the final day. This doesn’t happen in most leagues where there’s a huge disparity between the top two/three clubs and the rest.
True, but how many clubs could buy two strikers for approaching 100m each, and still have more for at least one other make signing (two minimum, actually – starting midfielder and left winger in many cases)? That’s what’s being asked for. If an arsenal fan asks for that now, whether we actually can or not, how can they complain about what Chelsea and city did?
… one other major* signing
Davi, because we’re doing it within the rules and they, it seems, broke them.
There is now such scrutiny, no club can overstep the rules and that’s why the likes of villa need to sell.
If city115 are found guilty, it’s because they tried to hide what was gong on, while we haven’t.