It has been reported in the national press that following an instruction by manager David Moyes, West Ham United, have now joined the battle for Coventry City’s £25 million rated Swedish striker Viktor Gyokeres.
Reportedly a host of Premier League sides are interested in attempting to capture the services of the 25 year old talent and his goalscoring form, and record, has definitely improved since he joined the Sky Blues from Brighton and Hove Albion back in the summer of 2021.
Should the 14 capped Swedish international move on from the Midlands side this summer, he will depart the club having made 96 starting appearances for them, with 20 showings from the bench, returning 40 goals. The 2022/23 Championship season was certainly his stand out though, scoring 21 goals and laying on 12 assists as they made it to the Play Off Final, narrowly losing out on promotion to the Premier League after a penalty defeat to Luton Town.
If West Ham have a genuine interest here, it is believed that we will face competition from the likes of Brentford, Fulham and Wolverhampton Wanderers who are all apparently looking to strengthen their own attacking options, and despite the apparent £25 million valuation, he is also attracting some interest from European sides, with Sporting Lisbon also name checked as having an interest.
Coventry themselves will very likely be open to a deal if a side is willing to match their valuation as Gyokeres is now down to his final 12 months on his original deal, and given the interest being expressed in him, a new deal is highly unlikely to be signed, so having missed out on promotion and the riches that would have awarded them, cashing in would make a lot of sense given how things stand.
Fans will wonder given his over all record whether or not he is worth that kind of expenditure after one good stand out season, but Coventry owner Doug King sounds like he is planning on driving a hard bargain even if the outcome seems obvious.
“The reality is that it’s early in the window. There is quite a lot of interest in Viktor. He’s clearly made his comments to the press and we’ll see how it unfolds. I’m feeling quite calm – and Viktor is still contracted to Coventry City. It isn’t up to Viktor Gyokeres to tell the club he’s going somewhere for 50p. That is not how it works and won’t happen in this situation. When a player moves, they have to agree their terms with a different club and the selling club have to agree a compensation package. If both of those don’t work, then nothing will happen.”
We will have to see if reports of our interest are correct.
Image from: unsplash.com
