Paul Scholes questions whether Mikel Arteta really wanted Arsenal summer signing

Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has questioned whether Viktor Gyokeres was really Mikel Arteta’s top target for the striker position at Arsenal.

Arsenal put an end to months of speculation as they officially announced Gyokeres’ arrival from Sporting last month in a deal thought to be worth around £55million plus £8.5m in add-ons.

The Gunners saw off strong competition from Manchester United to land Gyokeres, with the 27-year-old forward favouring a switch to the Emirates to play Champions League football next season.

The move came on the back of an exceptional two-season spell for Gyokeres in Portuguese football with Sporting, in which the notched 97 goals in 102 games.

Gyokeres’ extraordinary goalscoring exploits helped steer Sporting to a domestic double last term and there are hopes the Swede can pick up where he left off at Arsenal to have a transformative effect on Arteta’s squad.

But discussing the transfer on The Overlap’s Fan Debate, Scholes raised the possibility that Arteta never truly wanted Gyokeres given the amount of time it took to bring the attacker to north London.

The likes of Alexander Isak, Benjamin Sesko, Liam Delap and Victor Osimhen had all been linked before Arsenal honed in on a deal for their latest big-money signing.

‘I just wonder if you’ve [Arsenal] chosen the right one,’ the ex-United and England midfielder said.

‘Because there was a lot of um-ing and ah-ing about it and they were taking a bit of time, I was wondering, “Does Arteta really want him? Is he the main one he wants?”, I wasn’t too sure.

‘Look, he’s got him and he’s had a really strange career path. Honestly, weird. Brighton, Coventry, and then he’s gone to Sporting and his goal record is absolutely brilliant – you can’t take that away from him.

‘And you think if there’s any team that he could go to that creates chances then it should be Arsenal and it should be a really good match but you just don’t know until it happens.’

Scholes is also yet to be convinced that Gyokeres’ game is ‘clever enough’ to suit the way Arteta plays at Arsenal.

He added: ‘The only thing I’d say against Gyokeres really is that with Sporting, he’s probably playing on the counter-attack a lot, in Europe especially.

‘You think of Arsenal, they have the ball an awful lot. Now, is he going to be clever enough to make these runs in behind?

‘A lot of it that you see, he’s sprinting from the halfway line almost, they can’t keep up with him and he’s ramming people, he’s quick and he’s smashing the ball in.

‘Is he going to be that clever striker? We know Isak can do that, don’t we? Can Gyokeres do that?’

Jamie Carragher, meanwhile, suggested new sporting director Andrea Berta may have been the driving force behind Arsenal’s bid for Gyokeres.

‘What I thought was really interesting, was James McNicholas from The Athletic did a piece when the signing was done, and he insinuated in the column that he wrote that he was more of a sporting director signing.

‘The club were in for Sesko for probably six months, and the new sporting director [changed direction] – I thought it was an interesting piece, as well as how that will affect Arteta going forward.’

For more stories like this, check our sport page.

Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.