Fabrizio Romano has revealed how Manchester United can secure a green light from Sporting Lisbon to sign star striker Viktor Gyokeres.
Manchester United are in desperate need of fresh attacking players following a dreadful Premier League season. The club have only scored 42 goals so far in the league this season, ranking them 15th for goals scored.
Ruben Amorim will be specifically looking to bring in attackers who can fit his style of play. He’ll be trying to sign players in the two “number 10” roles and a striker. Matheus Cunha looks set to be one of the attackers playing behind the centre-forward after impressing for Wolves this season.
United have reportedly nailed down four main striker targets that they would like to bring in this summer with one of them being Sporting Lisbon’s Viktor Gyokeres.
Following rampant speculation about his future the Swedish star has spoken out about his future after winning the Portuguese league, although his answer was ambiguous, “It’s football, I’m still here. I don’t know what’s going to happen. Nobody can predict the future,” he told reporters.
Although Gyokeres is not giving away any indication as to what he will do at the end of the season, Fabrizio Romano has revealed the striker’s future.
How United can get Gyokeres green light
Despite Gyokeres’ uncertain comments about his future, Romano says the striker has come to a decision saying he “will surely leave Sporting this summer with a fee already agreed”.
This wasn’t the only transfer boost that Romano provided as he went on to say “[A] package worth around €65m (£54.7m) can be enough to get green light from Sporting as agreed with Gyökeres months ago.”
Previous reports indicated that the fee to get Gyokeres out of Lisbon would be significantly higher due to his £85 million release clause. It will come as great relief to both United and fans that Romano has shared this lower figure. Sporting will likely still be happy with this figure as the sale would match the club’s record, which was Bruno Fernandes to United in 2020.
Although Romano didn’t specify which clubs he was referring to, he has referenced several times that both United and Arsenal are in the race for the Swedish star. Ben Jacobs’s recent comments on Curtis Shaw TV have indicated that Gunners are not planning to put “all their eggs in one basket” in case Alexander Isak becomes available.
Given Gyokeres place on United’s alleged four-man shortlist, the need for a striker and his history with Amorim, it wouldn’t be surprising if United were to try and move forward with a deal for the player.
How Gyokeres fits into United
Gyokeres would be the ideal signing for United. Not only has he proved his abilities beyond a doubt this season, but he is also familiar with Amorim and his style of play.
This is crucial as one of the main issues United has had this season is not having players that were comfortable with Amorim’s style of play whereas Gyokeres has not only experienced it, he’s thrived in it.
Amorim signed Gyokeres from Coventry in 2023 for £20 million following year-on-year improvement at Coventry. The transfer paid off as in the two seasons the Swede has been at the club he has won the league twice and the Bola de Prata (top scorer) twice.
In comparison to Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee’s seasons prior to joining United, Gyokeres stands head and shoulders above. Both Hojlund and Zirkzee showed promise but both were signed knowing they would have to develop.
Meanwhile, Gyokeres is seemingly the finished product. Signing the 26-year-old will also take some of the pressure off the club’s current strikers and give them a seasoned professional to develop under.
Although signing his previous players was a criticism levelled against Erik ten Hag, it seems unlikely to see this same complaint again if Amorim brings in Gyokeres simply because of how unquestionably prolific he has been this season. This in tandem with his reduced cost makes the Swede look like the ideal summer signing for United.
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