A new week, a new striker

Morning.

Starting a brand new week with good news is nice, so let’s do that. Late yesterday, news started to emerge that Arsenal and Sporting had come to an arrangement for the transfer of Viktor Gyokeres. We’ll pay a fee of €63.5m + €10m in add-ons, and reportedly the player’s agent waived their commission so that the Portuguese club would get a larger chunk of the fee up front.

There are still details to be worked out, but fingers crossed there are no further complications. Mikel Arteta wants his man for the pre-season tour in Singapore and Hong Kong, giving him the maximum time to settle in, get used to his new teammates, and be ready to go for the start of the season.

While it has seemed clear for a little while Big Vik was going to be the choice over Big Ben, the anxiety that has permeated through this window over our striker search remained. Hopefully that will ease a bit now. The big decision is made, we’ve pulled the trigger on the striker we so badly need, and now it’s about getting it all done and dusted to see what this guy will bring to the team.

First, it’s just more depth in a position we badly need it, and while I don’t think concerns about the transition from Portugal to England are unfounded, he looks like a player who won’t find the Premier League as challenging as some others. The presence and physicality is there, and I think that’s where many have struggled. Even someone like Alexandre Lacazette, who scored buckets of goals in France, never really got to grips with the intensity of the Premier League, and I don’t have that worry about Gyokeres at all.

There’s a technical level too, of course, and maybe he’s not as refined in some aspects of his game, but we needed someone to score goals, and this lad knows how to do that. I’ve linked to this before, but Lewis did a big piece on our new arrival that’s well worth your time if you want to find out a bit more about him and what he’ll bring – https://likeanewsletter.substack.com/p/gyok-n-roll-star.

So, assuming there are no unexpected complications, and with the reported arrival of Noni Madueke to be completed this week too, our summer business looks like this so far (fixed fees, add-ons not included):

Martin Zubimendi – £51m
Kepa Arrizabalaga – £5m
Christian Norgaard – £10m
Noni Madueke – £48.5m
Viktor Gyokeres – £55m

That’s a total spend by the end of this week of £169.5m, and there’s still a little bit of work still to do on the incoming front. It’s gone very quiet with regards the Valencia defender Cristhian Mosquera, but to my mind that’s still an important piece of the squad building for this summer. We cannot, and should not, ask that much of William Saliba again, so having proper cover in place for him, while maintaining the depth we have at right-back in the shape of Ben White and Jurrien Timber, feels very necessary to me. So, whether it’s Mosquera or some other defender, I’d like to see that done – although I don’t think it’s anywhere near as pressing as landing that striker.

After that, I think any further arrivals might well be dependent on the market itself. There are more rumours involving Leandro Trossard and a potential departure for him, and if that’s the case, then you have to go get someone for the left hand side. I’ve seen repeated stories about how we’re still interested in Eberechi Eze, but as yet there’s been nothing between the clubs. It does feel a bit like an outgoing or two would be useful to – if not balance the books, per se, but to cut that net spend down a bit so that if there are market opportunities we’re well placed to be able to take advantage.

I do not expect any high profile or surprise departures, but players like Oleksandr Zinchenko, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Fabio Vieira, Karl Hein, and Reiss Nelson should all be looking elsewhere if they want regular football next season. None of them will bring in huge fees on their own, but collectively they could generate a few quid, so I’m curious to see how Andrea Berta operates on the other side of the transfer fence. He’s done pretty well as the man front and centre of the incomings, so let’s see what can do when he’s the one doing the selling.

Right, I’ll leave it there for this morning, but we will an Arsecast Extra for you in a little while. We’ve already put out the call for questions on BlueSky @gunnerblog.bsky.social and @arseblog.com with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.

Pod should be out around noon. Until then, have a good one.