Gyokeres: The Arsenal striker who never gave up 

A striker who scores goals: An ideal quality for Arsenal's Gyokeres 

Hold the front page, hold the back page, the great Arsenal striker saga of 2025 has finally reached its conclusion and it’s Viktor Gyokeres who has come out on top.

For a long time, it looked as though Benjamin Sesko was our man but according to reports, RB Leipzig were unwilling to negotiate a fee under 90 million Euros. Yeah, thanks but no thanks lads, we’ll just go and get the other fella instead.

So, what do we know about Viktor Gyokeres? Well, essentially, he’s a big lad and scores a lot of goals. Sounds good to me.

The Swede has scored a staggering 86 goals in all competitions in two seasons at Sporting Lisbon, with 68 of those goals coming in the league. In Liga Nos last season, Gyokeres netted 39 goals in 33 matches.

Yes, the Portuguese league may not be the strongest, but I think if you score 50 goals in any league that probably suggests you know where the back of the net is. Famously that’s an ideal quality if you’re a centre forward.

 I know there have been some concerns over how the Swede’s game will translate to English football but it’s worth remembering Gyokeres has played on these shores before. Despite fruitless spells with Brighton and Swansea, he enjoyed a career kickstarting two years with Coventry City in the Championship between 2021-2023.

Joining from Brighton for around £1 Million, Gyokeres was desperate to prove himself. By this point he was 24 and he was at the age where he simply had to play regularly if he was to get into the Sweden National team and fulfil his potential.

Then Coventry manager Mark Robins has spoken of Gyokeres’ desperation to prove the doubters wrong from the outset and he went a fair way in doing just that after knocking in 17 goals in his first season with the Sky Blues.

The following season, Big Vik plundered in an impressive 22 goals, in doing so, helping Coventry to the Play off final where they would face Luton Town.

Despite assisting Gustavo Hamer for the equaliser at Wembley, Coventry would lose out on a place in the Premier League on penalties. But it was clear Gyokeres was at a point where he simply had to be playing topflight football.

And that was when Sporting came calling. Coventry had no choice but to let their star man go to Portugal for around £17 million. The rest is history.

For a number of months, it looked as though Benjamin Sesko would be the man Arsenal would turn to fill the striker void.

Perhaps he would’ve done had it not been for Arsenal’s new Sporting Director, Andrea Berta. Mikel Arteta clearly preferred Sesko whilst Berta favoured Gyokeres. But when RB Leipzig demanded an eye watering 90 million Euros for the Slovenian, Berta and co understandably baulked and pivoted to Gyokeres.

The big Swede made it very clear to his agent and his club that he wanted Arsenal and only Arsenal. He refused to report for pre-season training, gave up £2 million out of his wages to help bridge the gap in valuation between the two clubs and his agent even waived his hefty commission fee in a bid to push the deal through. You don’t see that every day.

Despite the Sporting Lisbon president appearing outwardly defiant and bullish over proceedings, on July 26, Gyokeres finally got his wish and signed on the dotted line thus ending the long striker saga.

Throughout the process, Gyokeres showed a clear willingness and desire to play for Arsenal, something that clearly took back even Arteta who has previously spoken about wanting potential transfer targets to show desire to wear the famous red and white. Gyokeres clearly displayed this and then some.

Obviously, goals is the number one desirable trait in any striker.

But even if you have only watched YouTube clips of Gyokeres, it is clear there is much more to his game than just goals.

He possesses a great deal of speed, something Kai Havertz lacks. He is physically powerful, able to shrug off challenges from defenders with ease. And his mentality of always wanting to prove himself to the doubters speaks volumes of his mental fortitude and overall character.

Clearly, he was a player who blossomed later than many of his peers. This is a player who was playing second division football at 25, just over two years ago.

In fact, I remember thinking in his early days at Sporting, what all the fuss was about. I mean, this is a guy who was playing Rotherham and Millwall every week not so long ago.

If he was so good, why has he never done it at the highest level?

If I am being completely honest, even at the start of this summer window, I still slightly favoured Sesko.

In my mind he was five years younger, played in an arguably stronger league and therefore had a higher ceiling. And perhaps that will ultimately prove to be the case.

But having taken a closer look at Gyokeres’ skillset, his career trajectory and his desire to play for The Arsenal and The Arsenal only, I’m now very much convinced this is the striker for us.