Viktor Gyokeres is the talk of most of Europe at the moment, following his hat-trick against Manchester City earlier this week.
The striker already had 20 goals in 16 games this season before those three against City, but English fans are always sceptical until they see a player do it against a Premier League club.
Those doubts were duly dismissed on Tuesday, with Gyokeres helping Sporting to a 4-1 win over Pep Guardiola’s side. Arsenal fans will hope it’s not a similar story later this month, when the Gunners travel away to Lisbon.
As for the longer term, the expectation is that one of the big Premier League sides will make a move for Gyokeres in 2025. Manchester United, Chelsea, and Arsenal are among the clubs linked, and Paul Hirst reports for The Times that the striker could be available for just £63m.
Gyokeres is certainly available for €100m (£83m), as that’s the price of his release clause with Sporting. If Arsenal or any other club were willing to pay that amount, only the player himself could stop them from making the signing.
But Sporting could go lower, with the player reportedly having a gentleman’s agreement with his club to leave for a lower fee of around €75-85m (£62.4-70.7m).
Hirst writes that Arsenal looked at Gyokeres last season before deciding against a bid, but you’d imagine they might be rethinking that decision now.
As well as the English clubs, a number of clubs in Saudi Arabia are also monitoring Gyokeres’ situation.
