Sporting Lisbon manager Ruben Amorim has spoken out on the recent transfer gossip around his star player Viktor Gyokeres, admitting that it’s having an effect on the Sweden international.
Gyokeres joined Sporting from Coventry City in the summer and has had a superb impact in his relatively short time in Portugal, scoring 17 goals in 20 games in all competitions so far to attract interest from even bigger clubs.
A report from A Bola notes that Chelsea and Arsenal have been among the teams linked with Gyokeres, while it also quotes Sporting boss Amorim discussing the situation and regretting that it seems to be distracting the 25-year-old.
“I think he’s improved the team, the fans like him a lot. We have to look at the other side: today there’s talk that Arsenal and Chelsea are interested in him. He was in England, right next to them, in the Championship,” Amorim said.
“(Interest from other clubs) It affects all players, I can feel it sometimes in (Goncalo) Inacio, I can feel it in other players and Viktor is no exception.”
It remains to be seen if this apparent interest from Chelsea and Arsenal will end up leading to anything more concrete, but it’s certainly the case that both clubs could do with more goals up front at the moment.
Mauricio Pochettino is relying on young and unproven Nicolas Jackson up front, though the return of Christopher Nkunku from injury could help things, while Arsenal will be concerned that they’ll be unlikely to stay top of the Premier League table without a more clinical centre-forward than the injury prone Gabriel Jesus.
Gyokeres could be a fine signing, but one imagines Sporting won’t want to lose him so soon after bringing him to the club.
Good player, but like smith Rowe, he is injury prone. If he was to come to a more aggressive league like the premier, he would get a lot more injuries. So that’s why he is a non starter for Arsenal.