Read my reply to Mascot.
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£75M and still no closer to winning the league.
#ForeverTheBridesmaid
What was the backdrop in the official picture? The beautiful mountains of North London?
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Maybe having a Spanish manager will help but this could be one of those cases where a player doesn’t settle and ends up heading back home in a window or twos time on loan given previous concerns about our local sub Par-bold hills.
Not going to belittle his ability now he’s signed for a rival club as I still think he is a good player but I am happy to question their next signing as rumours are circulating they have agreed a deal with the player and Sporting for Viktor Gyökeres who I remain firmly unconvinced by.
Never looked premier league quality during his previous spell in England and whilst he has a good record for Sporting even back in my playing days I could probably have hit double figures for goal contributions in the Portuguese league and I was an amateur level left sided defender 
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About to sign Gyokeres, according to reliable sources. £56m + add ons.
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I have the sense that people like to denigrate the Portuguese league because Nunez came from there. But so did Luis Diaz.
Gyokeres could turn out just fine for them.
Just seen that hes 27. No spring chicken. He’s hit high numbers in the Portuguese league, but as we’ve seen with Nunez, that doesn’t translate to success in the PL necessarily.
And Diaz has proven otherwise. He can’t be dismissed just because he’s playing in the Portuguese league.
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Nunez is a recent example we are particularly familiar with but my opinion on the standard of the Portuguese league goes back a lot further than that, I think it has only been won by teams outside the big 3 of Benfica, Porto and Sporting twice and the drop off in standard is quite severe so if you play for one of those leading teams there are a lot of stat padding games against far inferior opposition as it doesn’t have much depth.
At International level Gyökeres record is closer to 1 in 2 rather than just under a goal a game at Sporting - I expect he will score goals for Arsenal but I’m not convinced he is at that very top level needed to post Salah/Haaland level numbers.
I dont think that’s the case. It is more that he has failed to do anything of note anywhere else and so 2 seasons in portgual at 27 years of age is not enough to get excited about.
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He had two pretty good seasons in the Championship. A step below for sure but enough to earn a pretty big, high value move.
He’s shown he’s more than capable of performing at that level and a CL level too. He wouldn’t be the first late bloomer and I’d probably have preferred them to get a project in Sesko than someone hitting their peak.
Comparisons with Nunez are a bit moot. Just because it’s the Portuguese league doesn’t make them comparable.
I would say he isn’t worth the money they are paying but it doesn’t matter if he delivers to a reasonable level.
Problem on the Championship is it’s got a large list of players who delivered there and never could at the higher level.
His development has probably been helped by going to Portugal mind, like the Dutch league when we signed Suarez, but he did replicate it.
Comparisons and counting good or bad examples end at one point, because each career can be different. Some career pathways can be a bit special. Look at where Drogba was just before he ended up at Chelsea, with a quick and successful stop at Marseille. He was already 25-26. I don’t know too much about Gyokeres, will wait and see how it all looks on the pitch, if he does join Arsenal.
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I did say ‘necessarily’ in my post, as there are plenty of world class players that come out of Portugal.
The usual pattern is that players who are going to make it at the highest level tend to be leaving Portugal in their early to mid 20s
The one positive probably is having played here already.
You say there is a trajectory but he has already had that time over here.
Do think Gyokeres can be a good striker for Arsenal but the problem is whether the system at Arsenal allows a striker to thrive.
It’s alright wanting a striker but the rest of the team isn’t really geared up to provide the service to the said striker.
After seeing on the BBC live chat this morning that Rio Ferdinand had spoken about his doubts on Gyokeres making it in the Premier League back when he was being linked to Man U I would like to withdraw my previous comments along the same lines on principle to avoid any risk of being in agreement with that particular ‘pundit’
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With Gyokeres coming, Havertz and Jesus, two big strikers signing who earn nearly £300k a week, will sit on the bench week in, week out for them.
Looks like he’s taking a shit in an Indian style toilet.
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