Manchester United have been dealt a major blow in their bid to sign Viktor Gyokeres from Sporting, with Arsenal ready to trigger the striker’s release clause in January.
Ruben Amorim is supposedly desperate to land Gyokeres, who thrived under the Portuguese boss at Sporting, with reports earlier this month claiming the United boss ‘cannot wait until the summer’ to sign the 26-year-old, despite giving his former club his word that he would not poach their players in the winter window.
The Red Devils were boosted by a report claiming Sporting have reduced the Sweden international’s release clause from €100m to €70m, but that is still beyond the club’s reach unless they can secure buyers for Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho or both, with talks ongoing with clubs over their exits.
Transfer expert Ben Jacobs gave an update on United’s attempts to sign Gyokeres on Wednesday, and claims they may need to “look for something more economical” in January to ease their goalscoring woes.
“There’s been no outreach to Sporting yet, but what we can say is that Gyokeres price has dropped from his €100 million release clause down to something in the region of €70m,” Jacobs told FourFourTwo.
“He is a bit more affordable and certainly has lower wages and agent fees compared to another historical Manchester United target in Victor Osimhen, but they might look for something more economical or potentially within the Premier League.”
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Gyokeres has maintained his outstanding form from last season this term, and now has an incredible 75 goals in 80 games for Sporting.
Amorim has the advantage of working with Gyokeres before in a transfer race, but he will have known all along that there would be stiff competition for the striker’s signature, and L’Equipe now claim that Arsenal are prepared to swoop following the injury to Gabriel Jesus.
Jesus tore his ACL in the penalty shootout defeat to Manchester United on Sunday and will be out for the rest of this season and likely a significant chunk of next, focusing the Gunners’ minds on bringing in a new striker this month.
When asked by Rio Ferdinand after the North London derby if Arsenal are now looking to sign a striker to replace Jesus, Mikel Arteta replied: “Yes, for sure.
“Because we lost two players, big players, Bukayo [Saka], who can be out for up to three months, that’s a long time, and Gabby, who is going to be out for a long, long, long time.”
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Asked if they will try to complete a new signing before the end of the January window, Arteta said: “We are going to try, for sure.
“We are actively looking at. I think we have lost two very, very important players, we have 14 players in the squad, and we play every three days.
“We will try but let’s see who we can get.”
And it could be Gyokeres, with L’Equipe claiming that while moves for top targets Alexander Isak and Jonathon David are ‘inaccessible’ as Newcastle and Lille don’t want to sell mid-season, ‘the case of Gyokeres may be different’.
That’s because of the now €70m release clause which Arsenal are ‘no longer reluctant to pay’ to bring him to the Emirates before the end of the transfer window.
Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo is also mentioned as an alternative, who would cost a similar amount, with the Bees reportedly asking for £60m for their star forward.
