Arsenal in race to sign £42million sensation who is “very similar” to Gyokeres

The last few days have not been particularly pleasant for Arsenal faithful.

Mikel Arteta side lost more points in Premier League thanks to a 1-1 draw away to Brighton & Hove Albion, and then lost their first game League Cup semi-final against Newcastle United 2-0 at home.

Both games made it clear that the Gunners are in desperate need of reinforcements in attack this year, and one of the strikers they have been consistently linked with with during the last six months is Sporting CP’s Viktor Gyokeres.

However, while this may be unlikely given his mammoth release clauseThe north Londoners have been linked with another young striker this week who has been compared to the goal-scoring Swede.

Arsenal are targeting a striker on the rise

According to a a recent report by journalist Graeme BaileyArsenal is one of several teams interested in Sporting CP’s young striker, Conrad Harder.

Along with the Gunners, Bailey revealed that second-tier Chelsea and West Ham United are just some of the other teams looking to bring the promising poacher to England as early as this month, despite only joining the Lisbon outfit in the summer.

Interestingly, despite his contract having a release clause of €80m – £67m – the report revealed that an offer of around €50m, which is around £42m, would be needed to entice the Portuguese giants to sell .

Getting over the line could be complicated and expensive, but given how well Harder has played this season and the comparisons to Gyokeres, he’s worth fighting for.

How much harder compared to Gyokeres

Now, the first thing to make clear is that since Harder is still only 19 and in his first campaign for Sporting, it would be unfair to expect him to match Gyokeres’ frankly absurd level of performance throughout the season. .

However, the young Dane is certainly not shy and has already amassed quite an impressive haul seven goals and three assists in 22 appearances for the club’s first team.

What’s more, what makes that already high return rate even more impressive is the fact that he achieved it in just 718 minutes, meaning he scored an average of every 71.8 minutes.

For context, the former Coventry City star collected the catch 31 goals and six assists in 2,480 first-team minutes, which equates to a slightly better average of a goal every 67 minutes.

In addition, what other similarities are there between the two Scandinavian strikers, apart from their extraordinary ability in front of the goal ie.

Well, according to respected analyst Ben Mattinson, who actually described the teenager as “very similar” to the Stockholm-born star, the pair share “running power, physicality and powerful ball-striking.”

However, he prefaces by saying that as things stand, the youngster is “much more one-legged”, although, given his current rate of results as a substitute, that doesn’t appear to be much of a problem.

Ultimately, while Arsenal fans would understandably prefer their club to go out and splash big money on the utterly sublime Gyokeres this year, that is looking increasingly unlikely.

Therefore, if Arteta and Co want to continue preparing the squad for the future and sign a player very similar to the Swede for millions less, then securing Harder’s services could be the right move – until someone else beats them to it.