Manchester United have secured the signing of Bryan Mbeumo, and Ruben Amorim’s attention may turn to adding a new centre-forward.
Bryan Mbeumo is a Manchester United player at long, long last.
United have been chasing Mbeumo for much of the summer, but negotiations with Brentford were tricky to say the least.
United finally confirmed the signing of Mbeumo on Monday, adding another attacker to Ruben Amorim’s options.
United fans are relieved to see this saga finally come to an end, but Arsenal supporters are still waiting for their pursuit of Viktor Gyokeres to reach a resolution.
Manchester United offered Viktor Gyokeres chance
The Gunners have been targeting a new striker all summer long, with Sporting striker Gyokeres their top choice.
The Swede was a goal machine under Amorim at Sporting, and his goalscoring exploits have attracted major interest.
Gyokeres smashed 54 goals in all competitions last season, taking his Sporting record to 97 goals in 102 appearances.
Arsenal appeared close to signing Gyokeres earlier this month, but a deal still hasn’t been done.
Unsurprisingly, Amorim’s connections to Gyokeres mean a move to United has been speculated for many months.
United will surely target a new striker this summer, and Fabrizio Romano claims that Gyokeres was offered to United overnight.
Intermediaries ‘close to Sporting’ have invited United to make a move, with Arsenal still unable to reach an agreement.
Additionally, Romano added on YouTube that United were offered the chance to outbid Arsenal for Gyokeres, but the Swede only wants to join the Gunners as things stand.
Romano claims that Gyokeres was ‘very clear’ with that stance, even as Sporting informed him of the potential to join United instead.
“In the recent hours, overnight, the night between Monday and Tuesday, intermediaries and agents close to Sporting offered Manchester United the chance to enter in the deal and try to hijack the move,” said Romano.
“Basically, what they did in this kind of case is to tell Man Utd something like ‘Arsenal are offering this, but they have not closed the deal yet, so if you want, you can still enter and reach an agreement with Sporting’. But, it’s also very important to say that the message from Viktor Gyokeres and his agent to Arsenal has been very clear; ‘I only want to go to Arsenal’, the same message sent to Sporting,” he added.
Viktor Gyokeres to Manchester United surely put to bed
From the second Amorim became United’s top managerial choice, the connection between Gyokeres and United has been clear.
Gyokeres was already an impressive goalscorer at Coventry City, but he reached new levels with Amorim at Sporting.
A reunion would have made some sense, but United missed out on European football and certainly aren’t ready to challenge for the Premier League title.
Arsenal can offer those factors, and Gyokeres’ preference to join the Gunners is understandable as things stand, if a little frustrating.
United aren’t really in a position to outbid Arsenal right now anyway, having just structured a deal to sign Mbeumo.
United need the likes of Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Antony and Alejandro Garnacho to move on before a striker can be brought in, and it’s probably time to put any Gyokeres rumours to bed with other targets now on United’s radar.
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