If only Sean Dyche had the money.
Everton rounded out their preparations ahead of the 2023/24 Premier League season with a friendly against Sporting.
Leading the line for the Portuguese club that day was Viktor Gyokeres, who joined only a month prior from Championship side Coventry City.
Dyche, 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.
But seeing the Swede in the flesh left Dyche with a lasting impression.
“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.
Dyche added: “Then we played him in pre-season and I thought, ‘Strong, honest’.
“Not just the fact he was scoring goals by the way, there’s more to his game I think.”
Dyche even revealed he’d previously looked to sign Gyokeres when the Swede was in the Championship, but ‘the numbers kept growing’.
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 £17million they paid to sign him from Coventry.
Gyokeres has a release clause of £85m, but multiple reports have claimed Sporting would accept bids around £60m.
The 27-year-old’s future is expected to lie elsewhere, as talkSPORT understands Gyokeres is edging closer to joining Arsenal.
Gyokeres appears destined to return to English football after two seasons awayGettyManchester United and Arsenal have been the front-runners in the race for Gyokeres, with both sides in desperate need of a world-class striker.
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.
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.
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.
The capture of Gyokeres would also end Arsenal’s long-running pursuit of a striker, which has extended across multiple transfer windows.
But, as Dyche pointed out, it is one of the most difficult positions to recruit given the dearth of elite options available.
talkSPORTGyokeres enjoyed his best season to date[/caption]“People have been asking about Arsenal to get a number nine or an out-and-out centre-forward,” Dyche said.
“They say it as if it’s easy, as if there’s hundreds of them everywhere.
“It’s not that easy. Everyone wants a centre-forward.”
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