Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta and sporting director Andrea Berta are at odds over their top striker targets this summer, according to reports.
The Gunners are set for another season as runners-up in the Premier League with Mikel Arteta’s side failing to get near champions Liverpool in the second half of the campaign.
It would be the third season in a row that Arsenal finished second and, while they did well to get to the semi-finals of the Champions League, there is now an expectation that the Gunners should be winning silverware under Arteta.
A lack of a clinical striker didn’t help their aspirations this season and a new centre-forward has become one of their top priorities in the summer transfer window.
There have been reports that Arsenal have decided to pursue Sporting CP striker Vitkor Gyokeres above all others with the Gunners told he is ‘all theirs’ for £60m.
But former CBS Sports journalist Ben Jacobs insists that Arsenal are not putting all their eggs in the Gyokeres basket just yet as they wait to see how things pan out.
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Speaking on Curtis Shaw TV, Jacobs said: “Then you have the dream target in Alexander Isak. I think why we might not see all the eggs in the Gyokeres basket today or tomorrow is just because at the end of the season it will be clearer if Alexander Isak is genuinely available for a number or whether if Newcastle have got Champions League football he comes completely off the table.
On Isak, he added: “We hear this number out there that £150m as the price Newcastle are willing to sell for. While sources don’t entirely deny that figure, it would comfortably be a British transfer record, it’s not a number they’re offering to suitors.
“Suitors are waiting in order to be respectful to Newcastle. You need to have a great relationship with Newcastle, and approaching them as they try to qualify for Champions League is completely the wrong timing.
“If this £150m number is genuine, it comes from sources and insiders in conversations that I’ve had, but it’s stressed by the same sources that they’re not giving that number to the market.”
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But Football Insider insist that Arsenal are now in ‘advanced talks’ over a deal to sign Gyokeres with Berta ‘keen to press on with his top centre-forward target’ despite a ‘difference of opinion’ with Arteta.
Berta and Arteta ‘aren’t fully aligned on whom Arsenal should bid for’ with the former ‘pushing ahead’ to complete a deal for’ Gyokeres, while the Gunners boss ‘wants RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko who he sees as a stronger alternative.’
The report adds that Arteta has been ‘overruled’ by Berta ‘as Arsenal close in on’ the signing of Sporting CP striker Gyokeres.
Football Insider journalist Pete O’Rourke told the Inside Track podcast: “With Andrea Berta, it’s understood that he’s a huge fan of Victor Gyokeres at Sporting.
“He was interested in [Gyokeres] when he was in charge at Atletico Madrid, so he would be his number one target, while it is being suggested to me that Arteta would prefer Benjamin Sesko.
“Berta is utilising his control here over transfers, and he is pushing ahead with a deal for Gyokeres – talks are advancing between Arsenal and his representatives.”