The claims of Chelsea’s attempt to sign Viktor Gyokeres from Sporting were a topic in the Lions’ press conference today.
As manager Ruben Amorim spoke to local journalists about the upcoming game against Vizela, he was quizzed about an alleged €85m offer from the Blues for the striker.
The coach is quoted by O Jogo claiming that he heard about the news about Chelsea’s attempt, and was always sure that such an amount would not be enough to take Gyokeres from Sporting this month.
“Obviously, I was informed of the news. As soon as they said it was 85, I thought: ‘that’s not enough’. It’s only 100. I’m not worried,” said Amorim.
“Obviously, every club has to sell. What they’ve said is that, in the middle of the season, they’ll only leave for the clause. As we can’t control that, I feel quite calm because we can’t do anything about it. Of course, we have to look at Viktor’s impact on the team, we’d have to change a lot of things, hence the board’s endeavour to say that players we can’t afford to lose will only leave for the fee. I haven’t spoken to Viana about that. Nowadays, there are obviously clubs that can easily pay 100, but we don’t control that.
“I’m sure there could be offers in the summer. Right now, I don’t know. We’ll have to sell, but right now only for the clause. It’s hard for anyone to beat 100 million. I doubt there’s been an offer. I’d be informed, I believe. I don’t believe it was true. €85m is far from our value, we’re not going to suffer in anticipation.”
Sporting only spent €20m to sign Gyokeres from Coventry City last summer, and that was clearly a great deal for them. In his first 24 appearances for the club, the striker has 20 goals and 10 assists.
The problem is that he’s also carried them to top of the league table, and with the Lions having a rare chance to win the trophy, they simply won’t negotiate their biggest star in the middle of the season.
What Chelsea and other interested sides may regret now is not trying harder to buy him from Coventry City last year.
