Arsenal close in on “full agreement” to sign £64m star

It’s almost time for Arsenal to return to action.

On Wednesday, the Gunners will take on AC Milan at the Singapore National Stadium, also facing Newcastle United in Kallang next Sunday, before heading over to Hong Kong for a meeting with Tottenham Hotspur at Kai Tak Sports Park.

Ahead of their pre-season tour of Asia, the Gunners have been busy in the transfer market, but are they about to land their most important target of all?

Arsenal’s busy transfer window

So far this summer, Arsenal have made four signings, following the announcement that Noni Madueke had arrived from Chelsea on Friday, doing so for a reported £53m.

He follows fellow new arrivals Kepa Arrizabalaga, Martín Zubimendi, and Christian Nørgaard, while it is widely expected that Cristhian Mosquera will join from Valencia for £16.5m.

Meanwhile, Mark Brus of Caught Offside claims that Arsenal are in talks to sign Xavi Simons from RB Leipzig, which would certainly be an exciting addition.

Nevertheless, as noted by Art de Roché of the Athletic, a new centre forward remains the priority position that both those inside the club and supporters are concerned about, but there could be a breakthrough in that regard.

That’s because, according to Ben Jacobs of Give Me Sport, Arsenal are now close to a “full agreement” with Sporting CP over the signing of Viktor Gyökeres, with optimism that a “breakthrough”, when it comes to add-ons, will be made over the weekend.

The Gunners have agreed to pay the Primeira Liga champions £55m plus close to £9m in add-ons, with the Swedish international still ‘waiting for permission to undergo a medical’, but there is hope he will be able to feature for Arsenal during their aforementioned fixtures in Asia.

It was reported by Miguel Dantas and Ed Aarons of the Guardian last weekend that Gyökeres had failed to report for pre-season training, having informed Sporting he had no intention of returning, so this deal does appear set to be finalised.

Why Viktor Gyökeres will be so transformational for Arsenal

Given that midfielder Mikel Merino started pretty much every game from Valentine’s Day onwards last season at centre-forward, it was clear to all that Arsenal needed to spend big in this position.

Speaking on the Arsenal Vision podcast, Clive Palmer believes that the Gunners simply need a forward with a killer instinct in front of goal, and Gyökeres certainly provides that, whilst Simons would only offer a decent threat as a scorer from an attacking midfield role.

As the table outlines, no Arsenal player or Simons comes remotely close to having scored as many goals as Gyökeres across the last two seasons, with the Swede having bagged only six fewer goals than Bukayo Saka, Leandro Trossard, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus combined.

Of course, there is the caveat that the Primeira Liga is the seventh-best league in the world, according to Global Football Rankings, but even if Gyökeres scores 20 times across all competitions next season, that would be a major boost.

Recent Portuguese top-flight golden boot winners, namely Jackson Martínez, Bas Dost, Haris Seferović, Carlos Vinícius and Darwin Núñez do raise a bit of a red flag, but Thom Harris of the Athletic believes Gyökeres will be a success in North London, impressed by his ‘frightening physical profile’ as well as his ‘unerring ability to thump’ the ball really hard into the net.

So, of course, signing Simons would be exciting; it’s Arsenal heritage to have a team full of diminutive number tens. Tomáš Rosický, Alexander Hleb, Santi Cazorla, Mesut Özil, Cesc Fàbregas, Jack Wilshere and many others spring to mind.

Nevertheless, the Gunners need to win and they need to win now, and the signing of Gyökeres underlines this mission statement, even more so than Simons.