Viktor Gyokeres’ agent has revealed how close Manchester United came to signing the Arsenal star in this summer’s transfer window.
Arsenal‘s top priority in the summer was to sign an elite striker as they have been short in this department in recent seasons and Gyokeres was eventually preferred to Benjamin Sesko.
However, Arsenal’s pursuit of Gyokeres was far from simple as Sporting Lisbon went back on a gentleman’s agreement, while they faced competition from Man Utd and the Saudi Pro League.
Man Utd also identified Gyokeres as a leading target, though they missed out on the 27-year-old, who was intent on a move to Arsenal.
Arsenal’s patience eventually paid off as they paid around £64m to sign Gyokeres, who has three goals in his seven Premier League appearances this season.
Now, Jonathan Chalkias, who is assistant to agent Hasan Cetinkaya, has provided details on Gyokeres’ move to the Premier League, claiming Man Utd and Sporting Lisbon “finalised a deal behind their back”.
“It was such a lot of money [from the Saudi Pro League], it was well over 400 million net per year,” Chalkias said on the Studio Allsvenskan podcast.
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“It’s a ridiculous amount of money. It’s better Viktor answers that question some day, we didn’t once push him in that way.
“I think at the end of the day, money comes and money goes. Making this move to Arsenal gives us good marketing, too. He was actually never even that way, he didn’t think about it.
“But there was also the problem with Sporting that they had finalised the deal with United behind our backs.
“They [Sporting] had agreed because United paid a much higher transfer fee, but they didn’t get any attention. Every time they called it was, ‘no, no, no’, because he wanted to go to Arsenal.”
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Chalkias has also revealed why Gyokeres was in favour of a move to Arsenal.
“It’s just that they haven’t had a new one [striker] in the last two years, Arteta spoke with him, to go to a club that hasn’t won in a few years,” Chalkias added.
“Getting to do it on the biggest stage, living in London, playing for Arsenal, it doesn’t get much bigger.
“And this is a club that can not only win the Premier League, they can win the Champions League, they are an incredible team. And there’s a lot of talk about their defensive and midfield play and that they need a striker to score those goals.”
On the Arsenal newbie’s start at the Emirates, he added: “Really good, I think not above expectations but good.
“I think everything will be better when he settles down but he has started every game and they are leading the Premier League and they have faced City, United away, Newcastle away and Liverpool away, not that bad.
“I think if he just does what he’s good at he’ll score many goals there.”