10 months ago
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Chelsea have made a mammoth £73million bid for Sporting Lisbon attacker Viktor Gyokeres but will need to up their offer significantly to land the Swede, according to reports in Portugal.
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The west Londoners are keen to bolster their attacking options in the January window after a number of profligate displays and have been linked with the likes of Napoli’s Victor Osimhen and Brentford frontman Ivan Toney.
Gyokeres is another player that has been firmly on their radar after a brilliant first half of the season at Sporting.
The 25-year-old, who moved to Lisbon from Coventry City in a club-record deal in the summer, has netted 11 goals and laid on eight assists in 16 league appearances – a goal involvement every 75 minutes.
According to Portuguese newspaper Record, Chelsea have now submitted an offer worth €85million (£73m) for Gyokeres, with part of that made up in performance-related bonuses.
But Sporting have immediately rejected the bid and told their Chelsea counterparts that Gyokeres will only be sold if his €100million (£86m) release clause is paid in full.
Chelsea are unlikely to go that high, while the nature of release clauses – where the entire fee needs to be deposited in one massive cash sum – means the Blues would risk breaching financial fair play rules if they did so.
Gyokeres, who cost just £20m six months ago when he left Coventry, is well known to Chelsea’s recruitment team and actually spent three years at Brighton but never played a league game.
The Sweden international is thought to be open to a move to the Premier League but is very happy at Sporting and in no rush to leave, while the Portuguese side do not want to lose a player who has immediately become indispensable.
Speaking about the speculation surrounding him last month, Gyokeres told Record: ‘I think it’s a bit like when Sporting came in to sign me.
‘I’m very happy here and I don’t care about any interested parties at the moment.
‘I’m enjoying every day here and not thinking about what’s going on around me. Yes, there’s talk of big clubs, but for now it’s just news. That’s all.’
Asked outright if he wants to stay at Sporting, he replied: ‘Yes. This is where I want to stay.’
There are conflicting reports about Chelsea’s interest, with English media rebuffing Record’s claims of a big bid and playing down their interest.
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