Fabrizio Romano has detailed the very latest on where Viktor Gyokeres will play next season, with Manchester United, Arsenal and Al-Hilal all touched upon.
Gyokeres can leave Sporting CP for around €70m this summer via a verbal pact made between he, his agents and Sporting. Given the Swede is coming off a mind-boggling season in which he scored 54 goals in 52 matches and fired Sporting to a league and cup double, interest in understandably rampant.
Arsenal have laid the foundations to sign Gyokeres, though are now putting greater emphasis on signing RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko.
That could leave the door ajar for Man Utd who have re-focused their gaze on Gyokeres after losing out to Chelsea for Liam Delap.
Gyokeres is ‘open’ to joining Man Utd even without Champions League football. But according to Fabrizio Romano when speaking on YouTube, United would almost certainly have wrapped up a transfer already if they had qualified for the UCL.
Defeat to Tottenham in the Europa League final meant it was Spurs and not Man Utd who grabbed the final spot.
United have thus missed out on roughly £100m in guaranteed extra income and as a result, a Gyokeres transfer to Man Utd that once looked “99 percent” assured is now less so.
Nevertheless, Romano did make a series of encouraging claims for the Red Devils who could yet get a deal over the line, just later than originally anticipated.
“Gyokeres was and remains an option for Arsenal in terms of new striker,”began Romano. “Because at the moment my information is Arsenal are advancing on the deal for Benjamin Sesko.
“So Sesko is the clear favourite, there are conversations ongoing. But it’s still not a done deal. So until the Sesko deal is a done we have to be careful.
“At the moment Sesko remains the favourite, Viktor Gyokeres remains the other option on the table, but as it’s now two or three weeks that Arsenal are still not advancing on the Gyokeres deal, all the other clubs keep calling his agents.
“That’s what happened in the last 48 hours over the weekend. From what I heard, last week Man Utd had new contacts with Viktor Gyokeres’ camp, to be informed on the situation, something like ‘okay, if Arsenal are not doing the deal we are still there, we are still interested’.
“Then for Man Utd we have to see financially how they can make it happen, because with Champions League football I’m 99 percent convinced that they were going to close the Gyokeres deal quite quick. That was the feeling.
“Then no Champions League football, they lost the [Europa League] final in Bilbao, and so it’s more complicated financially.
“But for Gyokeres, Man Utd called again. Let’s see if they’re able to make it happen but there were new contacts with the agent of the player.”
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Romano went on to reveal Juventus have also established contact with Gyokeres’ camp too, though stressed doing a deal given the high costs involved will be difficult for the Serie A side.
The trusted reporter also verified reports of Al-Hilal exploring a move for the Swede. But again, there was positive news for Man Utd, with Romano insisting Gyokeres is not favouring a move to Saudi Arabia at this stage in his career, despite the vast riches on offer.
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