Gyokeres to Arsenal: Agent waiving fee ‘not plausible’ and ‘didn’t happen’ as Mourinho gives verdict
Viktor Gyokeres’ agent did not waive his fee in order to facilitate a transfer to Arsenal this summer, according to a football finance expert.
There have been widespread reports that Hasan Cetinkaya waived his €7m commission from the summer transfer in order to help move along negotiations between the Gunners and Sporting.
The Athletic‘s David Ornstein insisted on Tuesday that Arsenal were close to a ‘total agreement’ with Sporting for Gyokeres, while transfer expert Fabrizio Romano gave his ‘here we go’ confirmation to a deal.
And, despite other reports in Portugal that a deal has not yet been sealed, Gyokeres’ transfer from Sporting to Arsenal now seems imminent after a long delay over agreeing terms of the add-ons in a deal worth €73.5m.
Portuguese publication A Bola explain Cetinkaya’s decision to waive his fee, they wrote: ‘After intense negotiations over the final value of the financial transaction, the final figures were duly agreed upon: €63.5 million plus €10 million for objectives. A figure that, it should be noted, was only accepted after the player’s agent, Hasan Cetinkaya, waived the 10 percent commission he was entitled to in the transaction, which amounted to nearly €7 million.
‘Sporting, therefore, would not have to pay anything to the agent, who was under constant fire from Frederico Varandas throughout the process, which would prove decisive in reaching this agreement.’
READ: Sporting ‘look like the assholes’ over ‘flop’ Gyokeres as Arsenal tipped to finish sixth
But finance expert Stefan Borson insists that it’s “not plausible” that an agent would waive their commission like that and claims “it didn’t happen”.
Borson told Football Insider: “I would take it with a massive pinch of salt.
“I suspect it simply didn’t happen in the way that it’s been described. It’s not plausible that an agent would go ‘Oh yeah, I’ll just waive my €6million’. Obviously, it didn’t happen.
“It may be that he wasn’t entitled to it in the first place or there was some dispute as to what he was entitled to or he said ‘I’m entitled to €10million (£8.7million)’ and the club said ‘No, you’re not, but we’ll give you €4million (£3.5million)’.
“And rather than there being litigation about it, they came to an agreement. But the idea that he would just go ‘Yeah, don’t worry about the €6million you owe me’, people just don’t waive money like that.
“They probably don’t waive €6,000 (£5,200), never mind €6million, so I just don’t believe the story. The exact details around it, I have no idea.
“I have got a strong idea that no agent is waiving €6million.”
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There were rumours that Fenerbahce were interested in signing Gyokeres this summer and their manager Jose Mourinho has given his verdict on the striker’s imminent transfer to Arsenal.
Mourinho told Portugal’s Channel 11: “He’s a great player. I have no doubt. But Sporting had a way of playing very much around him, very adapted.
“I don’t know what Hugo Viana and Ruben [Amorim] initially thought; he’s a player with great potential. But in England, he’ll play against stronger teams, better players.
“Unfortunately, of the 3,400 lies that have been told about the transfer market, one of them is that he’s going to Fenerbahce. Unfortunately… So many lies, so much interest, so many people working for agents, for clubs… It’s a war that’s not my own.”
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