Wednesday’s update on Viktor Gyökeres moving to Arsenal was largely that there was no update on Viktor Gyökeres moving to Arsenal.
After a step forward over the past week, with Arsenal being ready to pay €65m plus €15m in bonuses and Sporting holding out for €70m plus €10m, nothing had advanced further. The Gunners had been expected to adjust that offer slightly and return, but that didn’t happen and therefore the pause button was once again pressed on the drama.
Threats about the player sitting tight and forcing a loan through at the end of the window, potentially to Fenerbahçe in a similar move as Victor Osimhen to Galatasaray last year, weren’t really taken seriously and clearly didn’t have the desired impact on Sporting.
A round up of Thursday’s Portuguese newspapers show it’s all still in limbo.
Record, who have generally been the ones leading the chase on this but yesterday sounded like they were losing the will to live, have a headline saying: ‘Gyökeres in Limbo, waiting for solution’
According to Record, some sources around a deal have stated Arsenal could walk away.
Over at O Jogo it’s reported Gyökeres wants to join Arsenal, which isn’t really news and wouldn’t even be made much clearer if he went to a tattoo studio and asked for a copy of teammate Morten Hjulmand’s Gunners crest ink.
A Bola are having the biggest panic. They report an Arsenal source has told them the Premier League club could walk away from a deal unless Sporting bend, which, really, is exactly what you’d expect an Arsenal source to say. They’re hardly going to tell a Portuguese newspaper: Arsenal are about to cave in and pay, so watch this space.
Should the two clubs continue their game of patience, the potential next development, and what we should all be getting the popcorn ready for is whether Viktor Gyökeres turns up for training tomorrow.
His return has already been delayed twice and unless Sporting spoil our fun and delay it again, the Sweden international will have to show up or go through with a timidly made, once withdrawn, and then made again, threat of going AWOL.
That’s something which would be really entertaining to see absolutely nobody wants to happen, obviously.
So, today’s Daily Viktor Gyökeres is essentially that nothing is happening other than A Bola providing some transfer negotiations shots for Arsenal.