Arsenal appear to have agreed a move for Viktor Gyokeres, fresh from the striker winning the title in Portugal.
After finishing second for the third season in a row, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta reaffirmed the Gunners board’s commitment to investing in the squad, claiming, “we have great people in charge of [recruitment] and they’re going to be leading that with the board and ownership.”
“We have to be very smart with the decisions that we take,” the Basque asserted in his post-match press conference after the Newcastle United win, adding, “Obviously, we need players because the squad is really short, and on top of that, we are losing four or five players.”
Viktor Gyokeres has agreed terms with Arsenal
In April, it was reported that Gyokeres’ agent Hasan Cetinkaya – a friend of Arteta – met up with Gunners sporting director Andrea Berta, with a transfer to Arsenal thought to be the primary reason for the meeting.
Following these talks, Portuguese outlet Correio da Manha claimed that the Swedish hitman, ranked at no.6 in FourFourTwo’s list of the best strikers in the world right now, was keen on joining the Gunners and showed a “desire” to get a deal done.
Now, O Jogo in Portugal reports that the former Brighton and Hove Albion star is “on his way to Arsenal” with the Mirror relaying that the Gunners will pay £58.9 million for his services.
Despite being valued at €100m last season, stories have come out from the BBC that Sporting would accept as little as £62m for Gyokeres, who has struck 96 goals in 101 games since leaving Coventry City in 2023.
FourFourTwo understands that the price that Arsenal could pay for Gyokeres could be as much as a third of what Newcastle United are demanding for another Gunners target, Alexander Isak.
The links to Isak, however, have died down significantly since Berta joined during the March international break, with the Italian favouring a more affordable option.
This new report from Portugal states that personal terms still need to be agreed between Arsenal and Gyokeres – but with Record in Portugal explaining via a report from Sport Witness that the player has a “gentleman’s agreement” with Sporting to leave this summer, the hard part of the deal appears to be agreed.
Gyokeres is worth €75m, according to Transfermarkt.
Arsenal could shell out for a marquee striker… and he might not even be a first-choice starter
There is an elephant in the room when it comes to talk about Arsenal’s need for a headline no.9 to spearhead their attack: Kai Havertz is not going to automatically drop to the bench.
While the German divides opinion, managers adore him – and Arteta has crowbarred him into his Arsenal side leading the line and as a left-sided no.8, making the same kind of box-to-box, late runs into the penalty area that Declan Rice makes… so who misses out on a place if Gyokeres arrives?
One would assume Rice moves to no.6 (as he has in the past), with Martin Odegaard and Havertz ahead – yet Martin Zubimendi is also set to arrive, complicating matters further.
Gyokeres could replace Gabriel Martinelli on the left, while Zubimendi’s ability to dictate tempo could see the end of Odegaard’s importance to this team: but really, the simplest answer in football is usually the one we see.
Arsenal have a winning formula in big fixtures with a target man in Havertz and a solid double-pivot behind of Rice and Partey (to be replaced by Zubimendi): the most obvious thing that Arteta will do, is use Gyokeres as a backup to Havertz.
Given the Swede’s aerial deficiencies, don’t be surprised if he’s supplemented with a 6ft 4in German behind him – he’s still so important to Arsenal.
