Sporting Club de Portugal negotiated with Manchester United over Viktor Gyökeres’ behind his agents’ backs this summer.
That’s according to his agent’s assistant Jonathan Chalkias, in quotes carried by Mais Futebol today.
Gyökeres left Sporting to join Arsenal in a €65.8m deal at the end of July, after months of speculation about his future.
He had been heavily linked with a move away from the Portuguese side after two impressive years in which he managed 97 goals and 28 assists in 102 games.
Numerous reports named Manchester United as suitors before he joined Arsenal. That was largely thanks to him working with Rúben Amorim at Sporting. He scored 66 goals in 68 games under him before the manager left to join Manchester United.
They had been expected to try and bring Gyökeres to Old Trafford and reports in Portugal insisted that was happening.
Gyökeres, though, reportedly made it clear that he wanted to join Arsenal. Indeed, they were his first choice throughout the summer. A deal was eventually done after plenty of drama on that front.
Now Chalkias claims that talks with Manchester United did take place, but he and his agent Hasan Çentikaya were unaware of them.
“Saudi Arabia? Those were sickening amounts,” he said.
“It’s better if he talks about it one day, especially since we’re not pressuring him to accept any offer. At the end of the day, money comes, and money goes.
“This move to Arsenal also gave us very good marketing. One of Sporting’s problems is that they tried to negotiate a transfer to Manchester United behind our backs… Manchester United offered a higher transfer fee.”
