Scholes reveals doubts over Arsenal signing and questions whether Arteta wants him

Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has questioned whether Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta wanted to sign Viktor Gyokeres this summer.

The Gunners have made six new signings so far this summer with Gyokeres, Martin Zubimendi, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Christian Norgaard, Noni Madueke and Cristhian Mosquera all joining.

Arsenal were negotiating with Man Utd-bound Benjamin Sesko at the same time as holding talks over Gyokeres earlier in the summer and Scholes has doubts that the former Sporting Lisbon striker is what Arteta wanted.

Scholes said on The Overlap: “Yeah, centre-forward, just wonder if you’ve chose the right one, you don’t know until it happens.

“Because there was a lot of umming and ahhing about it and it was taking a bit of time, I was wondering — does Arteta really want him? Is he the main one he wants? I wasn’t too sure.

“But look, he’s got him, and he’s had a really strange career path, I think, hasn’t he?

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“He has, honestly, Brighton, Coventry, and he’s gone to Sporting Lisbon. His goal record is absolutely brilliant, you can’t take that away from him, and you think, if any team he goes to that creates chances, then it should be Arsenal and it should be a really good match, but we just don’t know until it happens.”

Scholes added: “The only thing I’d say against Gyokeres really is that with Sporting, he’s probably playing on the counter-attack a lot, in Europe especially.

“You think of Arsenal, they have the ball an awful lot. Now, is he going to be clever enough to make these runs in behind?

“A lot of it that you see, he’s sprinting from the halfway line almost, they can’t keep up with him and he’s ramming people, he’s quick and he’s smashing the ball in.

“Is he going to be that clever striker? We know Isak can do that, don’t we? Can Gyokeres do that?”

Fellow host Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher said on Gyokeres: “What I thought was really interesting, was James McNicholas from The Athletic did a piece when the signing was done, and he insinuated in the column that he wrote that he was more of a sporting director signing.

“The club were in for Sesko for probably six months, and the new sporting director [changed direction] – I thought it was an interesting piece, as well as how that will affect Arteta going forward.”

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But Arsenal legend Ian Wright has brushed off concerns over Gyokeres’ lack of experience in a top league and is ready to back the Gunners’ new striker.

Wright told the SDS podcast: “I spent five seasons in the First Division scoring goals and obviously there’s a lot of people looking at you all the time. There was a lot of talk around me and a lot of interest.

“People start to say, ‘It’s going to happen’, and then Arsenal came. Obviously, everybody knows the link with David Rocastle, we grew up on the same estate.

“But I remember when I went to sign, I went home and watched the six o’clock news and they flicked to the streets and they’re saying, ‘What are we signing him for? We’ve got [Paul] Merson, we’ve got [Kevin] Campbell, we’ve got [Alan] Smith and we’ve got a young guy, Andy Cole, there as well. Why are we signing him? He’s only played in the First Division!’, and bro, I was watching it and you just get hot.

“I was petrified and when I went there. They were champions two out of the last three years, but what I realised more than anything else was I had gone to a place where I’d gone to another level.”

Wright added: “I was playing in games, I’d score two goals and I must have had a maximum of five touches because people are making runs, people are doing different things, I’m not making as much work as I did at Palace.

“What you realise is that it’s the same thing with Gyokeres, it’s the same thing.”

Wright continued: “I heard Mark Robins from Coventry say that every time Gyokeres trained, he looked like somebody in a rush, in a hurry, he needs to make up time and I totally got that because once I got to Arsenal I realised I was in a place where I could make up time.

“People are talking about the league Gyokeres played in and the fact he doesn’t score against this kind of team, he only scores penalties, this and that… it doesn’t matter.

“What I’ve heard and what I loved that I heard from Gyokeres is that man wants to be there. I wanted to be there because I knew once I got in amongst these guys and they create these chances, I’m going to take them. All I was focussed on was hitting targets and taking chances.”