Sporting have reportedly slashed their asking price for Viktor Gyokeres, who is thought to be a target for Manchester United. The 26-year-old has emerged as one of Europe’s most feared marksmen since joining Sporting from Coventry City last year.
Gyokeres is thought to be attracting interest from the Premier League with United among the clubs to have been linked. Speculation has ramped up following the news that Sporting boss Ruben Amorim will be replacing Erik ten Hag at Old Trafford next week.
The forward has a release clause of around £83million written into his Sporting contract, which expires in 2028. However, there is said to be a chance that United could sign him for considerably less at the end of the season.
Sporting have reduced their asking price for Gyokeres to around £63m, according to The Telegraph. It would still make a huge profit on the £20m fee paid by the Portuguese heavyweights to land him from Coventry in the summer of 2023.
Amorim was quizzed on the possibility of bringing Gyokeres to United after Sporting’s big win over Manchester City on Tuesday night. However, the 39-year-old made it clear that he would not be drawn into giving much away.
“I’ve just made peace with the Sporting fans so I’m not even going to make a joke about it,” he said. “Gyokeres is a Sporting player, which is a great club. He did a lot for the club.
“He was in the second division [of English football with Coventry]. He just has to stay and finish the season at the club.”
Gyokeres is currently in the form of his life, having already scored 23 goals for Sporting in all competitions this season. He bagged a brilliant hat-trick against City on Tuesday as the reigning Premier League champions slipped to a chastening 4-1 defeat.
The former Coventry and Brighton man spoke out about his lack of a move during the summer window, suggesting he had been priced out of a switch due to the value of his release clause.
“They wanted most of the starting players to stay and held us tight,” he told Sport Bladet. “That’s how it turned out, but I enjoy Sporting very much so for me it was no problem to stay.
“It [the release clause] was probably a bit too much because nothing came of it. Of course, it’s a lot of money, but we’ll see what happens next window.”
