Everton to make ‘formal proposal’ for Coventry City star Viktor Gyokeres as interest hots up
Coventry City news from CoventryLive as Premier League clubs are reported to be ready to table a bid for Sky Blues star
Everton is set to launch their official bid for Coventry City striker Viktor Gyokeres as interest hots up in the player.
That’s according to Portuguese newspaper O Jogo, which claims the Premier League club will “table” a bid for the Sweden international’s services this week.
Sky Blues owner Doug King has confirmed Sporting Lisbon has made contact regarding the 25-year-old player and says there’s “quite a lot of interest” following the opening of the summer transfer window last week.
Gyokeres last week indicated he was ready to leave the Championship club and feels that City’s £ 20 million valuation is too high, but King has hit back, insisting the player cannot dictate the price and saying he hasn’t ruled out keeping the striker for another season, even if it means he runs down his contract and leaves for nothing next summer.
Everton were one of a number of clubs linked with interest in Gyokeres in January and the report in O Jogo claims the Toffees will submit a “formal proposal” this week.
It says the striker “is waiting for approaches from top Premier League clubs,” and that Everton manager Sean Dyche has indicated he needs a striker to bolster his squad.
Speaking to BBC CWR, King said: “Sporting Lisbon has been in touch with the club but ultimately, when a player moves he has to agree their terms with the club and the selling club has to agree on a compensation package. If both of those don’t work then nothing will happen.
“That’s not up to Viktor Gyokeres to tell the club, ‘I’m going here for 50p.’ That’s not how it works and that won’t happen in this situation.”
He added: “The fact that we buy and sell players, that’s just the nature of football. Sometimes we buy players and sell them at a loss, or they go away and we don’t get any recompense for that purchase, and sometimes we buy players and sell them for profit and we obviously have to find a replacement for that quality from those funds.
“So the reality is, it’s early in the window. There’s quite a lot of interest in Viktor. He’s clearly made his comments to the press so we will see how it all unfolds. I am feeling quite calm about it and the situation is he still represents and is still on contract to Coventry City Football Club at this point.”
