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Coventry City saw the best out of Swansea City flop that now has £85m release clause: View
- Viktor Gyokeres’ rise from Swansea loanee to €100 million-rated Sporting star is a stunning turnaround in just three years.
- Gyokeres’ struggles at Swansea, scoring just once in 12 games, contrast sharply with his remarkable goal-scoring form now.
- Signed for just £17.5 million, Gyokeres’ 58 goal involvements in 50 games for Sporting prove him to be a prolific striker.
Viktor Gyokeres is currently one of the hottest properties in European football thanks to his form with Sporting Lisbon, but it’s fair to say that Swansea City supporters wouldn’t have seen that coming a couple of years ago.
The Swedish striker joined the club on loan from Brighton in October 2020, but he struggled to make any sort of impact in SA1, and you’d struggle to find many of the Jack Army who were too disappointed when he was recalled early by the Seagulls in January 2021.
However, in the three-and-half years that have followed, the striker has enjoyed a meteoric rise, with his form at Coventry City earning him a move to Portuguese giants Sporting Lisbon.
The striker has a release clause of £85million, which works out as around €100million, according to journalist Pedro Sepulveda, and quite frankly you’d have been laughed out of Swansea had you suggested that Gyokeres would be a player of that calibre just a couple of seasons ago.
Viktor Gyokeres struggled for form at Swansea City
Swansea had Rhian Brewster on loan during the second half of the 2019/20 season, and he’d impressed, so much so that he sealed a move to Sheffield United for a reported fee of £23.5million that summer, and the Swans were back in the loan market for a striker.
With the transfer window being open later thanks to the pandemic delaying the end of the 19/20 campaign, Swansea announced Gyokeres’ signing in October 2020, almost a month into the season, and the Swede was playing catch-up on his teammates from the very beginning.
Steve Cooper had some strong attacking options at his disposal with the likes of Andre Ayew, Jamal Lowe, Wayne Routledge, Liam Cullen all regulars in the Swansea team, and Gyokeres struggled for minutes.
The Swede couldn’t displace the likes of Ayew and Lowe in the starting XI, and was used sparingly by Cooper, starting just one league game.
You could argue that the reason Gyokeres never reached his potential was because he wasn’t given much of a chance, but he didn’t show anywhere near enough to warrant more starts, particularly in a Swansea side that was competing for promotion.
In total, Gyokeres made 12 appearances for Swansea, scoring once in an FA Cup tie with Stevenage, which was ironically his last game, and he was recalled by Brighton due to his lack of minutes in South Wales.
