Roy Keane and Ian Wright disagree on Viktor Gyokeres as they drop Arsenal transfer verdict
Roy Keane and Ian Wright have disagreed on their assessment of Arsenal’s signing of Viktor Gyokeres and it is not in the way that you might expect.
Gyokeres was a £64m signing last summer that many Arsenal fans hoped would solve their lack of a clinical No.9 but after eight Premier League goals in 23 matches, plenty of critics would argue that it is still a problem position for Arsenal this year.
If a lack of goals – he is joint ninth on the league’s top scorer list – is not enough to convince critics, supporters would point to other areas he helps the team but even Mr Arsenal Ian Wright was not willing to give a resounding positive verdict of the Swede.
Appearing on the Overlap podcast, Wright was asked if Gyokeres’ transfer was a hit, miss or maybe and he settled for the latter.
“Fingers crossed for him, it’s a maybe right now. If we’re judging him just on goals… you can probably say yeah, but you judge him on everything he’s bringing to the team.
“He’s just somebody who I think, as long as we can finish it off [Arsenal win the league], next year he will come stronger. So I’m a maybe.”
Pressed for a more finite answer by Gary Neville, Wright admitted he was not happy with the performance level of the player so far.
Surprisingly, Keane was the more positive of the two and suggested that Gyokeres had done exactly what he was brought into Arsenal to do.
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“I’m going to say hit, he’s doing what he’s supposed to do at Arsenal,’ Keane said. ‘I think by the end of the season he will be a hit.’
Gyokeres scored two goals in a 30-minute cameo last time out against Sunderland, prompting manager Mikel Arteta to believe he has turned a corner.
“His work ethic remains the same,” Arteta said of his striker.
“I think probably the energy, the confidence, when you start to score and assist, you probably believe that it’s going to happen more often and the probability of that happening then increases…
“I think physically as well, after the injury… when he got himself again fresh and available, and training and a sequence of good matches there, I think everything lifted and now it’s clicking.”
