Arsenal should sell Viktor Gyokeres in January if a serious permanent offer arrives. Not next summer, not after another season of waiting for the Sporting Lisbon version to suddenly appear in north London. January.
That sounds ruthless for a striker who scored around 20 goals during his first season in England, but this is precisely when elite clubs have to separate emotion from squad management. The issue is no longer whether Gyokeres is capable of scoring goals. The issue is whether Mikel Arteta genuinely sees him as Arsenal’s first-choice centre-forward, and the evidence is increasingly pointing in the opposite direction.
Gyokeres arrived for around £64million in the summer of 2025 carrying extraordinary expectations after terrorising Portuguese defences. He was supposed to provide the ruthless finishing Arsenal had supposedly been missing, finally giving Arteta a specialist striker capable of converting territorial dominance into goals.
His first campaign was respectable rather than disastrous. He scored 21 times in all competitions and finished as Arsenal’s leading scorer, but even those numbers never completely settled the argument about his suitability. He started only 26 of his 46 appearances, lost important minutes to Kai Havertz and ended Arsenal’s Champions League final on the wrong side of Arteta’s preferred starting XI.
This season has made the hierarchy much clearer. Gyokeres has barely featured in the Premier League, collecting only 29 minutes before the international break, while Havertz has established himself as Arteta’s preferred striker. When Gyokeres has started in the Champions League and Carabao Cup, he has done little to force a major rethink.
Havertz’s recent injury may temporarily reopen the door, but that should not obscure the larger picture. Arsenal spent £64m on a specialist centre-forward and, barely a year later, the team appears more comfortable using a converted attacking midfielder in his position.
That matters far more than any debate over whether Gyokeres needs another few months to adapt. When a manager repeatedly prefers another player, particularly one who was already at the club when the expensive new striker was purchased, the market should start paying attention.
It would be easy to look at Gyokeres’ international break and argue that Arsenal should simply give him more opportunities. He scored against Romania, scored again against Poland and looked far more like the powerful, confident striker supporters remember from his Sporting days. His fitness also appears fine despite leaving the Poland match with blood on his socks.
But scoring for Sweden does not solve the Arsenal problem. In fact, it may strengthen the argument for selling because it preserves the most commercially useful thing Arsenal still possess: the wider perception that Gyokeres remains an elite goalscorer who simply needs the right environment.
Arsenal’s mistake now would be waiting until that perception disappears. Another six months sitting behind Havertz, producing little when selected and watching his minutes shrink would not increase Gyokeres’ value. It would destroy Arsenal’s leverage.
Free Bet Offers
Swipe to see more →
T&Cs Apply. Click to view.
T&Cs Apply. Click to view.
T&Cs Apply. Click to view.
T&Cs Apply. Click to view.
T&Cs Apply. Click to view.
T&Cs Apply. Click to view.
Arsenal bought the Sporting version — but that player has not fully translated
This is where the uncomfortable conversation about Portugal has to be had.
Gyokeres’ numbers for Sporting were extraordinary and Arsenal were entirely justified in taking them seriously. He was powerful, explosive, relentless running into channels and devastating when defenders gave him space to attack. His combination of strength and directness made him one of Europe’s most productive forwards.
The Premier League presented a different examination. Centre-backs are generally quicker, stronger and more comfortable defending physical forwards, while Arsenal frequently face opponents sitting deep enough that there is little space for Gyokeres to attack behind them.
That exposes a problem in his fit with Arteta’s football. Arsenal often need their centre-forward to become part of the attacking structure rather than merely finish it. Havertz can drop into midfield, combine between lines, receive under pressure, contest aerial balls and create spaces for Saka and the other attacking players.
Gyokeres wants to run.
There is nothing wrong with that. For another team, it may make him devastating again. But Arsenal dominate territory so frequently that the striker often receives the ball with two centre-backs already positioned behind him and very little grass available to attack.
That is why one of the most damaging developments for Gyokeres is not even Havertz moving ahead of him. It is that a genuine discussion now exists over whether Mikel Merino might provide a more natural replacement for Havertz when the German is unavailable.
Think about what that says.
Arsenal bought a £64m centre-forward and, 14 months later, a midfielder is being discussed as potentially better suited to replicating the role of their first-choice striker. That does not automatically make Gyokeres a poor player. It does suggest Arsenal may have bought the wrong type of player.
January is about protecting an asset, not admitting humiliation
Football clubs are often terrible at accepting mistakes early.
They spend £60m on a player and convince themselves that selling him for £45m would represent an embarrassing £15m loss. So they keep him for another year, his playing time decreases, everybody realises the manager does not trust him and suddenly the £45m offer becomes £30m.
That is not patience. It is bad asset management.
Gyokeres turns 29 next summer. Arsenal do not have the luxury of treating him like a young striker whose resale value could recover after two developmental seasons. His next major contract will take him well into his thirties, which means interested clubs will become more price-sensitive with every transfer window that passes.
Right now he still carries enormous value in the market. He has the Sporting record, a 20-plus-goal first Arsenal season, international goals and the physical profile that would still appeal enormously to clubs playing a more transitional style.
There have already been reports of interest from Italy and Saudi Arabia. Whether any of that interest develops into an acceptable permanent offer remains to be seen, but Arsenal should be encouraging the market rather than closing the door.
The objective should not be recovering every pound of the original £64m fee. That money has already been spent. The question is what Arsenal can recover today compared with what Gyokeres may be worth after another six months as Havertz’s understudy.
The £64m fee should not be the reason Arsenal keep Gyokeres. It should be the reason they refuse to watch his remaining value evaporate.
His Sweden goals are the best argument for selling now
The obvious counterargument is that Gyokeres may be about to turn everything around.
Havertz is injured. Gyokeres has scored twice for Sweden. Arsenal have a heavy schedule approaching and he may finally receive the run of games needed to rediscover his confidence. Selling a proven goalscorer halfway through a title defence could look remarkably foolish if Havertz then suffers another injury.
That is the strongest case for keeping him, and Arsenal should certainly use the coming weeks to test it.
But there needs to be a deadline.
If Gyokeres starts regularly in October, November and December and finally convinces Arteta that he can lead this Arsenal attack, the January discussion changes completely. Arsenal should never sell a player merely because the first five weeks of a season were disappointing.
What they cannot afford is another ambiguous six months.
If January arrives and Havertz is still first choice, Gyokeres is still receiving scraps and Arsenal are still debating whether Merino offers a better stylistic alternative, the experiment has provided its answer.
At that point, keeping Gyokeres because he once scored extraordinary numbers in Portugal would become sentimentality.
Arsenal need to correct mistakes before they become expensive failures
The best recruitment departments are not those that never make mistakes. That is impossible.
The best clubs identify mistakes quickly.
Arsenal were right to believe they needed more goals. They were right to target an established striker. They were right to be impressed by Gyokeres’ Sporting numbers, and 21 goals in his first English season means nobody can reasonably describe the transfer as an outright catastrophe.
But recruitment is ultimately about fit.
If Arteta prefers Havertz, wants greater link play from his striker and spent the summer pursuing other elite attacking options, Arsenal have to confront what those decisions collectively say about Gyokeres.
The answer increasingly looks uncomfortable: he is a very good striker who may not be the right striker for Arsenal.
That distinction should make selling easier, not harder.
Put Gyokeres into a side that attacks space earlier, transitions more frequently and allows him to run at retreating defenders and there is every possibility that he starts scoring heavily again. Arsenal do not need to prove he is finished before moving him on.
They simply need to decide whether his best football is likely to happen at the Emirates.
Right now, it does not look that way.
January therefore represents a narrow opportunity. Gyokeres still has the reputation. He still has international goals. He still has the Sporting numbers. He still has enough Arsenal goals from last season for another club to believe the Premier League experiment can be revived elsewhere.
Six more months on the bench could change all of that.
Arsenal should not wait for Viktor Gyokeres to become impossible to sell before admitting he is no longer essential to keep. If the right offer arrives in January, cash out while somebody else still believes they are buying Sporting’s superstar rather than Arsenal’s substitute.
This article is an opinion and analysis piece. The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views or official position of BettingTips4You.com or BSpin Limited.
