{"id":202957,"date":"2025-06-21T16:32:20","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T16:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/202957\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T16:32:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T16:32:20","slug":"numbers-kept-growing-everton-missed-out-on-arsenal-and-manchester-united-target-viktor-gyokeres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/202957\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Numbers kept growing’ – Everton missed out on Arsenal and Manchester United target Viktor Gyokeres"},"content":{"rendered":"

If only Sean Dyche had the money.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Everton rounded out their preparations ahead of the 2023\/24 Premier League<\/a> season with a friendly against Sporting.<\/p>\n

Timeframe revealed for Arsenal striker hunt as they target Benjamin Sesko and Viktor Gyokeres<\/p>\n

Leading the line for the Portuguese club that day was Viktor Gyokeres<\/a>, who joined only a month prior from Championship side Coventry City.<\/p>\n

Dyche<\/a>, who was in charge of the Toffees at the time, already knew what Gyokeres brought to the table having been put onto him by one of his scouts years before.<\/p>\n

But seeing the Swede in the flesh left Dyche with a lasting impression.<\/p>\n

“The boy Gyokeres, I’ve got to be honest, I think he’s a real player. I saw him in the Championship,” Dyche said on talkSPORT.<\/p>\n

Dyche added: “Then we played him in pre-season and I thought, ‘Strong, honest’.<\/p>\n

“Not just the fact he was scoring goals by the way, there’s more to his game I think.”<\/p>\n

Dyche even revealed he’d previously looked to sign Gyokeres when the Swede was in the Championship, but ‘the numbers kept growing’.<\/p>\n

The figures discussed with Dyche regarding Gyokeres at the time must seem like pennies now given Sporting are expected to make a serious profit on the \u00a317million they paid to sign him from Coventry.<\/p>\n

Gyokeres has a release clause of \u00a385m, but multiple reports have claimed Sporting would accept bids around \u00a360m.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old’s future is expected to lie elsewhere, as talkSPORT understands Gyokeres is edging closer to joining Arsenal.<\/p>\n

\"Gyokeres<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Gyokeres appears destined to return to English football after two seasons awayCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Manchester United<\/a> and Arsenal have been the front-runners in the race for Gyokeres, with both sides in desperate need of a world-class striker.<\/p>\n

Yet it appears the Gunners have nudged in front, with the added lure of playing Champions League football potentially a key part of the club’s pitch.<\/p>\n

Should Gyokeres arrive at the Emirates, he will add some vital firepower to an attack in which no player registered more than ten league goals.<\/p>\n

Kai Havertz finished as Arsenal’s leading goalscorer in the Premier League last term with a tally of nine, although he missed 14 games due to a mix of illness and injury.<\/p>\n

The capture of Gyokeres would also end Arsenal’s long-running pursuit of a striker, which has extended across multiple transfer windows.<\/p>\n

But, as Dyche pointed out, it is one of the most difficult positions to recruit given the dearth of elite options available.<\/p>\n

\"Gyokeres<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Gyokeres enjoyed his best season to dateCredit: talkSPORT<\/p>\n

“People have been asking about Arsenal to get a number nine or an out-and-out centre-forward,” Dyche said.<\/p>\n

“They say it as if it’s easy, as if there’s hundreds of them everywhere.<\/p>\n

“It’s not that easy. Everyone wants a centre-forward.”<\/p>\n

Watch all of the FIFA Club World Cup free on DAZN. Sign up now <\/a>so you don’t miss any of the action.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If only Sean Dyche had the money. Everton rounded out their preparations ahead of the 2023\/24 Premier League…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[11246,161,748,393,8641,19454,4884,2998,2465,98,101,273,6759,73831,51139,58639,100,16,15,8642,165],"class_list":{"0":"post-202957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-analysis","9":"tag-arsenal","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-football-news","13":"tag-goals","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-latest","16":"tag-manchester","17":"tag-manchester-united","18":"tag-premier-league","19":"tag-rumours","20":"tag-sean-dyche","21":"tag-sporting","22":"tag-stats","23":"tag-transfer-fee","24":"tag-transfer-news","25":"tag-uk","26":"tag-united-kingdom","27":"tag-updates","28":"tag-viktor-gyokeres"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114722318821985178","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}