Arsenal are poised to sign a marquee striker during the summer transfer window.
The club have fallen short of the Premier League title over the past three seasons.
The onus will be on closing the gap with a big summer spending spree.
Sporting CP striker Viktor Gyokeres has emerged as the top striker target recently, and the club have reportedly failed with an opening bid worth £55.3 million.
The Gunners are preparing a second offer of £59.6m, including bonuses. Amidst this, Gyokeres has broken his silence with a cryptic message on Instagram stories.
He said: “There’s a lot of talks at the moment, most of it is false. I will speak when the time is right.
The Sweden international had a gentleman’s agreement to leave Sporting CP for £59.6m, including add-ons, but the Portuguese champions have backtracked on the promise.
The 27-year-old reportedly feels ‘let down’ and ‘disrespected’ by the club, who have set a new asking price of £68m to sanction his sale during the summer transfer window.
Sporting director Frederico Varandas recently hit out at the striker’s agent by reaffirming that there has been no kind of agreement that the Swede would be sold for £59.6m.
It is unclear whether Gyokeres’ message is related to what Varandas mentioned. There has also been speculation that he won’t play for the club again amid the broken promise.
Regardless, the former Coventry City man looks poised to leave the Primeira Liga giants this summer.
Arsenal and United have been mentioned as the leading candidates to purchase Gyokeres, but we are not convinced that the Gunners have made a formal transfer offer for him.
The reported bid has not been mentioned by any English outlets. Reputed journalists such as David Ornstein and Fabrizio Romano have not provided any information too.
It could be the player’s representative trying to encourage a bidding war from other European rivals rather than Arsenal making a genuine effort to recruit the striker.
