Morning.
After a lot of slow stuff with regards to Viktor Gyokeres, when things got moving they moved fast. He was officially announced as an Arsenal player at 2am Singapore time which isn’t the most convenient for me, but I guess the club had other priorities. Point is, the deal is done, Big Vik is an Arsenal player.
Andrea Berta, who was a big driver when it came to the striker decision this summer, says:
We are so pleased with the excellent deal we have completed to bring Viktor Gyokeres to the club. Viktor is an exceptional talent and has consistently demonstrated he has the qualities and winning mentality required of a top-level centre-forward. His physicality, intelligence and work ethic make him a perfect fit for our vision.
I like how he made it very clear this was an excellent deal. I just wanted to make note of that in my excellent blog. While Mikel Arteta said:
Viktor has so many qualities. He is a quick and powerful presence up front, with incredible goalscoring numbers at club and international levels. He brings a clinical edge with a high conversion rate of chances into goals, with his intelligent movement in the box making him a constant threat.
His job now is to come in and score goals, and speaking to the official site, the Swedish international said:
I always want to score. To be a part of this club and to score in this kit and with this badge in front of all the supporters, I can’t wait. It will be an amazing feeling.
What seems clear from all the reporting around this transfer is that the player himself was fully committed to it, and pushed hard to make it happen. Your mileage may vary on how he behaved with Sporting and not turning up for training, believing that the Portuguese club and its president had reneged on an agreement with regards his release. He may have had a point, but unless you have that kind of thing in writing, you leave yourself open to the kind of difficulties he faced in the last few week as Sporting – understandably in my opinion – looked to maximise the financial recompense.
I think it’s also quite feasible that there was an element of spite to the way they behaved. An important player decided to leave, didn’t turn up for training, and they wanted to show that they wouldn’t be pushed around, but it’s all water under the bridge now. However those add-ons get paid, whatever the schedule for them, Gyokeres is now an Arsenal player and that is the most important thing. We’ll wait and see if he joins up with the tour, Arsenal are in action this evening against Newcastle in Singapore before traveling to Hong Kong, but the big signing of the summer is done and now we just need him to hit the ground running, score an absolute ton of goals, and help fire us to success and silverware. No pressure!
In seriousness though, you get the sense this is something he’s going to relish. Joining a big club at the age of 27, having made his way in somewhat unconventional fashion, means there’s going to be a real hunger to deliver and that’s no bad thing at all. For more on the player, there’s Phil’s profile piece here, and we have our usual new player podcast on Patreon if you fancy something to listen to this morning.
I will leave any other snippets of news and info for Lewis who will be on duty tomorrow, and Andrew A who will have the blog for you on Tuesday morning as I travel back to Ireland from Singapore. As I said, the game today against Newcastle could be interesting, especially with all that Isak stuff swirling around, but for now, take it easy. Have a great Sunday folks, and hopefully see some of you around the stadium later on today.
Good luck!
