Fabrizio Romano: Man Utd 'offered' fresh Arsenal transfer hijack as 'no breakthrough' with £69m deal
Manchester United have again been offered the chance to hijack Arsenal’s move for Viktor Gyokeres
Mikel Arteta kept his cards close to his chest on Monday when asked about Arsenal’s potential move for Sporting CP striker Viktor Gyokeres.
After links to Gyokeres and Benjamin Sesko, the Sweden international has emerged as the top target for the Gunners who are in talks with Sporting but have yet to reach an agreement. It was reported last week that Premier League rivals Manchester United had sent an offer in an attempt to hijack the deal.
United, who Arsenal meet on the opening day of the Premier League campaign, are in desperate need of a striker and Ruben Amorim worked with Gyokeres in Portugal. Asked about the striker, Arteta said on Monday: "I cannot comment on any player who is not part of our group yet. When we have something concrete to offer in any case to any player we will do that."
Fabrizio Romano drops big update on Viktor Gyokeres to Arsenal
Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano has offered some fresh intrigue on the transfer saga. He revealed that the Red Devils had been offered a fresh chance to hijack the move for Gyokeres. However, the key for Arsenal is the player still wants to make the move to North London. His agent has already waived his fee in order to facilitate a deal.
Sky Sports have reported that Sporting want a total of £69m for the deal. £60.4m of that would be up front, with a further £8.6m. Fresh talks were held on Monday between Sporting and Arsenal to try and reach an agreement but as of yet there has been no breakthrough.
Romano said on his YouTube channel in the early hour of Tuesday morning: "Sporting intermediaries and agents close to Sporting offered again to Manchester United the opportunity to enter in the deal and try to hijack the move.
"So basically what they did in this kind of case is to tell Manchester United something like 'if you want, Arsenal are offering this but they've not closed the deal yet, so if you want you can still enter and reach an agreement'.
"So Manchester United have been offered again the opportunity offered to Saudi clubs around 10-12 days ago to enter, hijack and reach an agreement with Sporting.
"So this happened once again, but guys it's also very important to say that on the same moment the message from Victor Gyokeres and his agent to Arsenal has been very clear - I only want to go to Arsenal. The same message also sent to Sporting.
"Gyokeres wants to go to Arsenal. So let's see what's going to happen there because Arsenal and Sporting keep negotiating on these famous add-ons, keep negotiating on these details of the deal.
"On Monday around lunchtime afternoon they had new contacts trying to advance on the structure of these add-ons, so continuing negotiations, still no breakthrough in talks."