What’s going on with Gyokeres? Arsenal, Man Utd bid(s), ‘blackmail’, fake agent quotes and a ‘sales mandate’

Does Viktor Gyokeres have a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ with Sporting? Does his agent have proof of said agreement? Does that same agent have a ‘sales mandate’ for rejected bids? Have Arsenal made an offer? Two offers? Are Manchester United in the running? We’ve attempted to unpick fact from fiction…

Here’s what we do know: Gyokeres has scored 97 goals in 102 appearances for Sporting since his €20m plus €4m in add-ons (which we strongly suspect have been reached) move from Coventry in the summer of 2023. He now wants to leave. Arsenal and Manchester United are interested. He has a €100m [£84m] release clause in his contract.

From there it all gets a bit murky.

It’s been widely reported that Gyokeres has a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ with Sporting that he could leave the club this summer for €70m [£59m], but that’s since been refuted by the Portuguese club.

It’s been claimed they actually want €80m [£67m], with that supposed U-turn infuriating Gyokeres to the point of threatening a strike on the back of multiple Swedish outlets claiming his agent Hasan Cetinkaya has ‘written evidence that Sporting promised him to let the player out for €60 million and another €10 million for goals’.

In response, Sporting Lisbon President Frederico Varandas said: “Threats, blackmail and insults don’t work with me.

“I can guarantee that Viktor Gyokeres will not leave for €60m+10m (£51m+£8.5m) because I never promised him that.

“This game that the agent is playing only makes the situation worse. To this day, Sporting has not had an offer for Viktor Gyokeres, neither today nor last season.”

Gyokeres took to Instagram on Thursday to shed some light on the situation: ‘There is a lot of talks at the moment, most of it false. I will speak when the time is right.’

As it turns out, according to Portuguese outlet Record, one of the false claims was his agent’s reported proof of the gentleman’s agreement. He doesn’t have the evidence and never said he did, but Varandas fell hook, line and sinker like the rest of us.

“It was agreed that Sporting would not demand the release clause at the end of the following season, especially because he was going to be 27,’ added Varandas. “Then, we knew Viktor’s dream of going to a club where he could fight for the Champions League and we have common sense.

“We guaranteed that we would not demand 100 million. In that meeting, the agent wanted to anchor the departure to a value, he spoke of 60 million, 70 million… And I said ‘there’s no point in setting a value’ because I don’t know what will happen here in a year, if he gets injured, if he has a disappointing season… There’s no point in setting a value, I don’t know if it will be 40, 60 or 80. What I can guarantee is that I will not demand 100 million.

“From then on, I never spoke to the agent again, I never spoke to the player about departures and values. 10 months have passed and I see the agent in the press spouting information here and there, but Sporting has common sense, it keeps its word.”

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Now to the offers. Manchester United are said to be ready to make a bid worth €60m plus €10m in add-ons, which Sporting chief Varandas has already told everyone won’t be enough.

What’s more, Record are now claiming that ‘the footballer’s agents have officially told Ruben Amorim’s club that he is no longer an option for the striker’. They end by saying that the door to Old Trafford is ‘definitively’ closed and that ‘the dream destination is really the Emirates’.

But that door to Arsenal looks to be ajar at best with Fabrizio Romano claiming RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko is sporting director Andrea Berta’s ‘clear favourite’.

Pinches of salt are therefore required over reports claiming the Gunners have made one bid of ‘around €55m’ as a fixed fee for Gyokeres plus bonuses which could take the transfer up to €65m (again, not enough) and that they are preparing a second bid that will ‘exceed €70m’ in total.

And it’s no wonder Sporting want to ramp up the asking price if, as A BOLA claim, Cetinkaya is due 10 per cent of any rejected proposal which exceeds €60m thanks to a particularly cunning ‘sales mandate’ the agent ensured was part of his contract.

We assume that clause can only be triggered once, and not for every rejected proposal over that amount, but the report suggests if the agent does decide to take up the option (and why wouldn’t he?) then ‘Sporting will demand the full value of the player’s termination clause, that is, the €100 million euros’.

There we are then, an entirely successful unpicking of a transfer saga which is only just getting started.