Gyokeres or Sesko for Arsenal? We asked agents, sporting directors and coaches who they’d pick

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Should Arsenal sign RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko or Sporting CP’s Viktor Gyokeres?

That is the debate among the Premier League team’s supporters, and possibly within the club itself.

Sesko, 22, has long been considered one of the most promising young talents in Europe, and his 14 goals in 2024-25, including a run of seven in the German side’s final seven games, further proved his potential. Gyokeres is five years older but has been one of the most consistent players in the game over the past two seasons, scoring 68 league goals for his Portuguese team.

Both, however, are unknown quantities in the Premier League.

Gyokeres has been on the books of Brighton & Hove Albion, Swansea City and Coventry City in the English game, but only ever played in the domestic cups during three years with the former, who loaned him out to the latter two in the second-tier Championship during the 2020-21 season before Coventry bought him the following summer.

While Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak has long been Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta’s first-choice centre-forward purchase, a deal for the 25-year-old Swede appears beyond his reach, given his current club have also qualified for next season’s Champions League.

The debate over who Arsenal should sign is nuanced — and it could be they opt for a different player — but part of the discussion is whether they sign a “project player” in Sesko or go for the slightly older, more experienced Gyokeres.

Which to go for is a question for Arteta, new sporting director Andrea Berta and the club to answer.

So The Athletic spoke to agents, sporting directors and head coaches to see what they would do.

Arteta had favoured Isak, but he appears beyond Arsenal’s reach (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)

If they are to sell Sesko this summer, Leipzig’s preference is to do so early so they can rebuild their squad over the coming weeks. Given they failed to qualify for the Champions League, his departure would help plug a financial gap.

For one head coach, who is well-versed in the Red Bull clubs and watches them closely, the answer to Arsenal’s problems can be found in Leipzig.

“Normally, I like to work with the younger players to develop them, so I would go for Sesko,” the coach, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, tells The Athletic.

“With younger players, you can mould their attitude, create the values you want and help them take the next step. Look at Barcelona, for example, they have a team full of young, exciting players. The same can be said for Paris Saint-Germain, who have just dominated the Champions League final.

“Sesko’s a player with a lot of speed. For his game to go to the next level, he needs consistency — especially against the ball, because strikers can sometimes be lazy — but he has the qualities needed to go to the next level.”

It can be difficult for supporters to find common ground when it comes to who Arsenal should sign out of Gyokeres and Sesko, as is often the case when confronted with a binary choice, and people working in the football industry are no different.

One agent, in contrast to the head coach quoted above, believes Arsenal would be better served targeting Gyokeres and dismissed the idea they would lose value because of the Swedish forward’s age.

“If you sign a striker who is 27 years old (which Gyokeres turns this week) and, as a club, you have him for four years, then you’ve done well out of that deal,” the agent says. “The reality is that clubs don’t keep players for multiple years now anyway, so Arsenal have to decide who is going to help them win today, not in four years’ time — and it is difficult to look beyond Gyokeres’ record.

“If you had two players who had exactly the same output and exactly the same style, you would naturally go for the player who is four years younger. But in this instance, they are two players with completely different goalscoring records, so you sign the player that gets you over the line in terms of winning titles.”

Another agent offered an alternative outlook.

“You just sign the best player, right?” they said. “You take into account your style of play and who is better suited to your system.

“With every transfer, there is an element of not having a crystal ball. Someone like Sesko may not develop how you think he will, while Gyokeres may not be any good in the Premier League. But if there is that much of a question mark over each player, then maybe it’s not the right one (in either case) and they should be looking elsewhere.”

Arsenal had targeted Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins in January, while one agent ironically suggested they should take a look at Monaco’s Mika Biereth.

Arsenal discussed a possible Watkins deal in January (Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images)

Biereth, 22, was at Arsenal between 2021 and 2024, although he did not feature for the first team and was loaned to RKC Waalwijk of the Netherlands in 2022-23, Scotland’s Motherwell in the first half of 2023-24 and then Sturm Graz of Austria before joining the latter permanently last summer.

In January, the Denmark international was sold to Monaco in a deal reportedly worth up to €15million (12.6m/$17.1m at current rates), and scored 13 goals in 16 Ligue 1 appearances.

Les Reed, a former technical director at the Football Association and once vice-chairman of Southampton, has negotiated endless transfers and is well-versed in identifying which player to opt for once a shortlist of targets has been compiled.

Berta joined Arsenal earlier this year as their new sporting director, having most recently worked for Atletico Madrid. He, along with Arteta, is going to have a crucial role in signing the club’s new striker.

So, how does the relationship between a sporting director and manager work?

“The important thing is clarity,” Reed, now heading up Reed Consulting, tells The Athletic. “If you’ve done a good job and you’ve got the right people in place, everybody should be on the same page.

“If you take a club like Arsenal, the expectation is for them to win now, but there is a secondary expectation that they will be sustainable and continue to win.”

Andrea Berta started as sporting director earlier this year (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Reed notes a “key question” that will be asked internally is whether Sesko is ready, at this stage of his career, to lead the line at a club such as Arsenal and help them win the Premier League.

“That’s going to be the big debate they’ll be having,” Reed adds. “The safe decision would be Gyokeres, because you know he’s still scoring goals frequently and would probably be the answer now. But there’s no guarantee someone experienced who is knocking in goals at the top level is going to come in and make that transition either.

“It’s a fine line, but that’s what Andrea is getting paid the big bucks for — to get it right, to satisfy his manager and the club’s owners and fans.”

On Berta, Reed notes the importance of a new sporting director wanting to hit the ground running, especially when everyone knows not having a striker ultimately played a part in costing Arsenal a shot at winning the 2024-25 title.

It will be imperative for the Italian to get the decision right.

And asked how it plays out if there are internal disagreements over which target should be chosen, Reed believes they are few and far between — especially when you narrow the pool of players down to only a handful.

“If you’re in disagreement at this stage, there is something wrong about the way you’re working together and the way you’re drawing up your shortlists,” Reed says.

“If you’re working from a long list down to a shortlist, the sporting director and manager should both be involved in those discussions all the way to the point where, if you’re down to two players, you are going to be happy with either one.

“And if you are happy with either player, then it would probably be easier to go with the coach’s view.”

What also needs to be considered is how any potential arrival impacts the wider squad.

The head coach we spoke to who favours a move for Sesko, for example, raises the importance of selecting a striker who helps get the best out of other Arsenal players, such as Kai Havertz. The German was signed as an attacking midfielder but has been used predominantly as a central striker by Arteta.

Havertz has primarily played as a striker for Arsenal (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

“Havertz is the type of player Sesko needs around him,” the coach says. “For me, Havertz’s best position is the No 10 role and not a striker. So, if you want to play with a 10 and a striker, then Havertz and Sesko can work that way.

“From what I saw of Arsenal last season, they were a little bit more direct and if they had a target player like Sesko up front, and then Havertz in the No 10 position, then it could be interesting next season.”

The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that Arsenal require a central striker this summer, but whether that is Gyokeres, Sesko or somebody else remains up for debate. Do Arsenal want to go for a proven goalscorer with no Premier League experience, or a still-developing “project player” who could become a leading forward at the club for years to come?

It’s a big moment for Artera, Berta and the rest of the Arsenal hierarchy.

(Top photos of Sesko, left, and Gyokeres: Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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