Viktor Gyokees had searched for Arsenal from Sporting Lisbon, but a hitch in negotiations opened the door for Manchester United, who made a late attempt to sign him
Arsenal's failure to reach agreement with Sporting Lisbon for Viktor Gyokeres could come back to bite them after Manchester United has made a final attempt to hijack the deal. The Gunners have been in negotiations for some time about the structure of the transfer costs for Gyokees and may have left the door open for their Premier League rivals.
Gyokees is desperate to exercise in the summer transfer window and things have become increasingly bitter between the Swedish striker and his current employers. After he threatened to stop, the ex-Coventry player seemed to have had his wish when Arsenal chose him above Benjamin Sesko.
It emerged last weekend that Arsenal and Sporting were in principle in principle verbally agreed with the value of an initial £ 55 million plus £ 8.6 million in add-ons and bonuses. However, persistent discussions with regard to Arsenal sports director Andrea Berta and Sporting Chiefs have not yielded a complete agreement so far.
The bottleneck is the way in which the deal is structured and the delays have led to Arsenal unable to sign Gyokeres on time for their pre-season tour through Asia. Although this just seemed to be a bump in the road on the road from Gyokees to North Londs, it could now become something more serious, with Portuguese media that dropped a bomb on Sunday.
SIC now reports that the Arsenal deal is 'increasingly at risk'. They say that the fixed offer from Arsenal has been set at € 63.5 million (£ 55 million), which rises to € 70 million (£ 60 million) because the agent of Gyokeres has abandoned his committee of € 6.5 million (£ 5.6 million). And that rigid structure is not acceptable for sport.
Record, meanwhile, says that United has now dropped a new bid on the table that is worth between € 70-80 million (£ 60-69 million). The newspapers notes that Gyokees – who played under Ruben Amorim at Sporting – still only wants to become a member of Arsenal, but it is still a curveball in the Transfersaga.
The 27-year-old is a contract with Sporting until June 2028 and sporty President Federico Varandas liked to play a hard ball in negotiations and makes his position in public. “If they do not want to pay Viktor's real market value, we will be very comfortable there for the next three years,” he said recently.
“This strategy also makes it more complicated for the player to leave. Nobody is above the interests of the club. Whoever they are. We are calm. Everything will be solved with the market closing, a big fine and an apology to the group.”
Gyokees has indeed refused to report for training for the season to make a fine. “One thing you should already know, I am better,” Varandas said earlier. “Threats, blackmail and insults do not work with me.
“I can guarantee that Viktor Gyökeres will not leave for € 60 million+10 million because I never promised him. This game that the agent plays only makes the situation worse. To this day, Sporting has not had a supply for Viktor Gyökeres, nor last season.”