Andrea Berta has been very busy since he joined Arsenal.
The Italian became the club’s new sporting director at the end of March, replacing Edu Gaspar, who has just been appointed as the Global Head of Football at Nottingham Forest.
Since taking over at Arsenal, Berta has extended the contracts of Gabriel Magalhaes and Myles Lewis-Skelly, while Kepa Arrizabalaga and Martin Zubimendi have officially been signed as well.
Arsenal are expected to complete the signing of Christian Norgaard next, and once that is done, the Gunners’ striker saga is finally set to be completed.
Andrea Berta flew to Portugal to advance Viktor Gyokeres to Arsenal deal
Viktor Gyokeres has become Arsenal’s top striker target.
The Sweden international became a key name on the Gunners’ wish list following Andrea Berta’s arrival, and talks have been ongoing for a few weeks.
Discussions were simultaneously taking place for Benjamin Sesko, but RB Leipzig’s demands have led to Arsenal pushing for Gyokeres instead.
TBR Football revealed that Arsenal could complete the deal to sign Gyokeres this week, and Berta could be the reason why.
BBC Sport have claimed that their sources spotted the Arsenal sporting director fly out of London to Lisbon at the end of last week to hold ‘face-to-face’ talks with Sporting for Gyokeres.
Discussions have taken place to strike a deal for a fee in the region of £70 million, which would make the Swede Arsenal’s third-most expensive signing of all time after Declan Rice and Nicolas Pepe.
Personal terms between Gyokeres and Arsenal are not expected to be an issue.
Arsenal target Viktor Gyokeres celebrating after scoring a goal for Spoting CP
Photo by PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA/AFP via Getty Images
Andrea Berta is already proving that he is a big upgrade on Edu Gaspar at Arsenal
Berta had the same problem at Arsenal this summer as Edu did 12 months ago.
Benjamin Sesko is the striker Mikel Arteta wanted, but in both windows, a deal to sign the RB Leipzig star proved to be difficult.
After Arsenal failed to sign Sesko last summer, Edu had no alternative and the Gunners ended the window without a new striker.
Berta seemed to be prepared for this — once the Sesko deal became difficult, he accelerated talks to sign Gyokeres by flying out to Lisbon.
As a result, Arsenal are in a much better position, and that proves that Berta is a massive upgrade over Edu at the Emirates.