Manchester United handed potential transfer boost as 'agreement' for top target revealed

Manchester United’s hopes of landing prolific Sporting Lisbon striker Viktor Gyokeres have received a boost with a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ said to be have been reached over his potential transfer, as per Football365. The Red Devils may have to wait until the end of the season to get their man though with his current club said to be reluctant to lose him half-way through a campaign.

Gyokeres, who is 26-years-old, has been in fine form since making the switch to Portugal and has a release clause of around £87m in his contract. He has scored 74 goals in 79 games in all competitions and played under Ruben Amorim before his manager left for England earlier this winter. However, Sporting are now said to have reached an agreement that would allow him to move to England for between £58.6m and £62.8m. He has been linked with United, Liverpool and Arsenal among others and the lower fee has the potential to put interested parties on alert.

Manchester United update regarding Viktor Gyokeres

The player had this to say last year regarding his future: "It's not something I think about (transfer talk), nor something I give any importance to. It's just rumours, nothing concrete. Of course, I want to finish the season at Sporting, I'm enjoying my time there. I don't feel stressed about making a change in the future. We'll see when the time comes."

If the Red Devils were to snap him up, his former club Coventry City would be due some money. That is because they have a sell-on fee. Their owner Doug King said: “Look, the deal we did with Viktor was a difficult deal to get done. He was going to Sporting Lisbon, Sporting Lisbon, Sporting Lisbon or Sporting Lisbon and they felt they were going to get what they wanted and we had to fight hard to get our deal. And the deal we got, I thought, was pretty damn good considering he had one year left and could have signed a pre-contract in four months.

“He’s obviously shot the lights out, which tells you what he did for us in that 22/23 season where we played very transitionary football, and if he’d have got injured in that second half of the season... I was more concerned with relegation, to be honest with you. Look, it will come or it won’t. I was happy with the deal and if he flogs on for 100 million Euros then we get some money to put into the coffers. We have already invested a lot of money into this club.”

Manchester United latest

United-linked Gyokeres started out as a youngster at IF Brommapojkarna before Brighton and Hove Albion lured him over to England in 2017. He then spent four years on the books at the AMEX Stadium and played eight games, chipping in with a single goal.

He would be ideal for the Red Devils if they were to secure his services. Amorim’s side are back in action this weekend in the FA Cup with a trip to the Emirates Stadium to face Arsenal. They drew 2-2 last time out against Liverpool at Anfield after goals by Lisandro Martinez and Amad Diallo. United could see Gyokeres as someone to bolster their attacking ranks. They could do with some more firepower up front after a tricky campaign so far.