Viktor Gyokeres responds to rumours of £73m Chelsea bid

Viktor Gyokeres has said he isn't thinking about rumours linking him with a big money transfer to Chelsea, who are in desperate need of a reliable striker, this month.

Gyokeres has scored 22 times in 25 appearances for Sporting CP across all competitions this season, as well as getting a further ten assists. That includes a brace against Vizela on Thursday.

A report in Portugal earlier in the week claimed Chelsea had made an offer for the Swede worth a total of €85m (£73m) that was supposedly rejected.

When Gyokeres was asked about Chelsea, he refused to give the rumours too much attention.

"I don't think anything about it," he told O Jogo. "I'm here and we have important games, I'm focused on that. There's a lot of talk on social media and other places, but I'm not focused on that. I don't think about anything else. I'm here now and I'm 100 percent focused on this and the club."

Sporting coach Ruben Amorim suggested in the wake of alleged bid that the Portuguese side will only consider selling Gyokeres during this month's transfer window if a club were to trigger his €100m (£86m) release clause. Any other bids won't be deemed acceptable.

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"Obviously, I was informed of the news. As soon as they said it was €85m, I thought: 'That's not enough'. It's only €100m. I'm not worried. Obviously, every club has to sell. What [Sporting] have said is that, in the middle of the season, [players] will only leave for the clause," Amorim said.

At 25, Gyokeres has proven something of a late bloomer. He was discovered by Brighton & Hove Albion while playing second tier football in his native Sweden, but only played eight times in cup competitions – never in the Premier League – during three and a half years at the club that was mostly dominated by loan spells, before moving to Coventry City for around £1m in 2021.

Having previously shown promise on loan at Coventry, Gyokeres found new hights following the permanent deal and scored 38 Championship goals over the course of two seasons. Sporting then agreed a €24m (£20.5m) deal to take him to Portugal and his star has continued rising since.

Chelsea have been dealt a major blow by Christopher Nkunku's injury problems since arriving from RB Leipzig, while Nicolas Jackson had only scored eight goals in all competitions by the time he departed for the Africa Cup of Nations. Chelsea’s top scorer is Cole Palmer on nine.

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