Chris Waddle has questioned Arsenal’s signing of Viktor Gyokeres and says the £64m striker does not look like a ‘huge step-up’ from what Mikel Arteta already had in his squad.
Arsenal turned to Sweden international Gyokeres for goals over the summer after missing out on the title yet again and going another season without a trophy.
Gyokeres boasted a sensational goalscoring record for his former club Sporting, scoring 97 goals in 102 appearances for the Portuguese side and starring in back-to-back league title wins.
The 27-year-old was one of the most sought after players in Europe and Arsenal beat Premier League rivals Manchester United to secure his signature on a five-year deal.
Gyokeres scored twice on his home debut for Arsenal back in August but has netted just one goal in eight games since that 5-0 victory over Leeds United.
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Arteta has repeatedly defended Gyokeres’ form, insisting he is helping the team even if he is not getting on the scoresheet, but Waddle has questioned Arsenal’s transfer decision.
‘I used to watch him at Coventry, and he was always unpredictable,’ the former England, Newcastle and Tottenham winger told BestBettingSites.
‘He played off the cuff. He could pick the ball up in a deep position, dribble past two players and then score. He could try the same thing again and then fall over his own legs.
‘He did well at Sporting Lisbon, but any half-decent player should be banging them in for Sporting. Thirty goals is the least strikers should be getting.
‘Except for Porto, Benfica, and maybe Braga, you’re not always getting a serious game. You’ll win 95 per cent of them.
‘In the Premier League, the standards are different, but he’s working hard. He’s putting himself in the action and he’s not ducking the challenge.
‘He’s looking for the ball. He’s that type of player, but right now, he’s not necessarily a huge step-up from what they had before.’
Gyokeres will hope to end his mini goal drought at the weekend when Arsenal return to Premier League action against London rivals Fulham.
Speaking last week, Gyokeres’ agent revealed Sporting made an agreement to sell him to Manchester United for more money than Arsenal paid.
‘It was such a lot of money [from the Saudi Pro League], it was well over 400 million net per year,’ Jonathan Chalkias said on the Studio Allsvenskan podcast.
‘It’s a ridiculous amount of money. It’s better Viktor answers that question some day, we didn’t once push him in that way.
‘I think at the end of the day, money comes and money goes. Making this move to Arsenal gives us good marketing, too. He was actually never even that way, he didn’t think about it.
‘But there was also the problem with Sporting that they had finalised the deal with United behind our backs.
‘They [Sporting] had agreed because United paid a much higher transfer fee, but they didn’t get any attention. Every time they called it was, ‘no, no, no’, because he wanted to go to Arsenal.’
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