Mikel Arteta has said he cannot comment on Arsenal’s pursuit of Viktor Gyokeres… yet.
It has been over a week since Arsenal agreed a fixed fee of £55m for the Sporting CP forward, after making a breakthrough in talks with the Portuguese club.
However, negotiations are still ongoing over the add-ons as part of the deal, with Sporting holding out for €10m (£8.7m). Further talks last week have been around the conditions of those bonus payments.
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Sky Sports’ Sam Blitz takes a closer look at how Viktor Gyokeres compares to the Premier League’s best strikers and asks just how good is the Portuguese Primeira Liga?
Arsenal have since departed on their pre-season tour to Singapore and Hong Kong, with Arteta asked about whether Gyokeres will become a Gunners player before the start of the new season.
“I cannot comment on any player who is not part of our group yet,” said Arteta. “When we have something concrete to offer in any case to any player we will do that.”
So far this summer, Arsenal have completed deals for Kepa Arrizabalaga, Martin Zubimendi, Christian Norgaard and Noni Madueke – in a busy start to their first summer window under new sporting director Andrea Berta.
Gyokeres is not the only outstanding Arsenal deal in the pipeline with an initial £13m deal for Valencia defender Cristhian Mosquera close to completion.
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Sky Sports News’ James Savundra takes a look at Arsenal’s potential new signing Cristhian Mosquera and breaks down how the Spanish centre-half compares to the club’s current defenders.
“I’m very pleased, that’s all I’ll say,” said Arteta about Arsenal’s business so far.
“There are a lot of parties and things that we have to bear in mind to get a player over the line and here. I’m very hopeful that we are going to do it very soon.”
Asked if he expects any new players to join Arsenal on their tour of Asia, Arteta replied: “There’s still a long time in the window and we are seeking still, in terms of numbers, we are short and we have to improve the depth and quality of the squad.
“We are constantly looking in the market. Until that happens, focus on the players we have and focus on them and I’m very pleased with what I have seen in the last 10-15 days.”
Arteta: Zubimendi turned down very good moves to join us
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Sky Sports’ Sam Blitz explains how Martin Zubimendi could be a more important signing than a striker for Arsenal as it will allow Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard to get higher up the pitch and be more of an attacking threat.
Arteta also addressed the Gunners’ purchase of Martin Zubimendi – with the Arsenal manager revealing the Spanish midfielder turned down “some very good opportunities” to move to north London.
Zubimendi was close to a move to Liverpool last summer but opted to stay at Real Sociedad for another year.
Arsenal then swooped in for the Spaniard with Arteta playing his role in convincing the midfielder to choose the Gunners instead.
“It was a long, long process,” said Arteta about the pursuit of Zubimendi.
“He had a lot of opportunities to decide whether he wanted to come and and the good news is that this club is is amazing and everybody wants to come to it. And he left some very good opportunities to come to us and he’s very impressive.
“I think we are all very impressed with what we’ve seen in the last seven to ten days because once you have the player daily there and you see his character, you see his personality , his intelligence and how much it’s going to bring to the team, very excited about it.”
Sky Sports to show 215 live PL games from next season
From next season, Sky Sports’ Premier League coverage will increase from 128 matches to at least 215 games exclusively live.
And 80 per cent of all televised Premier League games next season are on Sky Sports.
