At a swanky awards ceremony in Porto 12 months ago the question was put to Viktor Gyokeres: what’s the secret to your success?
In his first season in Portugal after leaving Coventry City to become the most expensive signing in Sporting Lisbon’s history Gyokeres scored 29 goals and added nine assists en route to the league title.
He was unsurprisingly the unanimous winner for Player of the Year.
So when a microphone appeared in front of him to discover his secret sauce, Gyokores chuckled. In his mind the answer was easy. The answer was Ruben Amorim.
‘The secret? I try to listen to the coach [Rúben Amorim] as much as possible!’ Gyokores said.
On Sunday, for the first time in their respective careers, they go head-to-head. Amorim the teacher looking to out-wit one of his most successful graduates as the new Arsenal striker looks to announce himself in the Premier League.
Viktor Gyokeres (left) and Ruben Amorim (right) go head-to-head as Arsenal meet Man United
Amorim helped catapult Gyokeres’ career while he was a striker at Sporting Lisbon
With Amorim desperately seeking a No 9 all summer long given Manchester United’s paltry 44 Premier League goals last season – 12 of which were scored before his arrival – the natural assumption was that Gyokeres would be top of the shopping list.
Gyokeres had a feeling of invincibility playing for Amorim. Team-mates, too, but particularly Gyokores, who established himself as one of Europe’s most deadly marksmen under Amorim’s watch, scoring 66 goals in the 68 games they worked together for.
But Daily Mail Sport has been told by insiders that for all of Amorim’s admiration and respect for Gyokeres, no move, no approach, was ever made.
The feeling inside Manchester United was that Gyokeres wanted Arsenal and only Arsenal. In their mind, after missing out on Liam Delap to Chelsea, any drawn out pursuit to reunite Amorim with Gyokeres would prove fruitless.
Suggestions in Portugal that Gyokeres’ representation was left ‘hurt’ by no formal approach from Manchester United came as a surprise inside Old Trafford. In their mind, Gyokeres’ appearance at Old Trafford this season was always going to be in an Arsenal shirt.
Mikel Arteta, too, felt that after one phone call with Gyokeres his preference was clear. Behind the scenes United had no desire to publicly lose a race they were never going to be in.
Eventually Amorim and Manchester United’s leadership spent big to bring Slovenia international Benjamin Sesko in from RB Leipzig for £74million.
Unsurprisingly on Friday afternoon Amorim was in no mood to discuss his former striker, now rival, dedicating a grand total of 49 words to the 27-year-old.
United didn’t make an approach for Gyokeres because they thought he only wanted Arsenal
‘That is a question for Mikel [Arteta],’ Amorim mused when the topic of Gyokeres was broached before eventually caving.
‘Viktor is in a different league,’ he added.
‘Sporting have good scouting because they live from the players they can buy and sell to survive. I think he’s a very good player. It’s not a surprise to see him with a big club in England.’
The dynamic on Sunday afternoon at Old Trafford is fascinating. On one side is a man who knows Gyokeres better than anyone else in attendance, including Arteta. On the other side is a striker that knows every trick in the Amorim playbook and knows exactly how to pick holes in his rigid defensive structure.
‘He always wants to make sure that everything is 100 per cent in the preparation for each game,’ Gyokeres said in 2023 of Amorim’s obsessive nature.
‘He always wants to make sure that we know what we have to do in each specific match, and I can say that he’s very good at that.
‘He also always knows what needs to be done tactically, both offensively and defensively – he’s really good in those areas.’
For all his tactical nous, helping to reassert Sporting as a powerhouse in Portuguese football with Gyokeres as the jewel of his attack, it was his obsession with understanding the Swedish international off the pitch to learn what makes him tick that stood out too.
Amorim made a big effort to understand Gyokeres – now Mikel Arteta must make him tick
What quickly became apparent to Amorim was that in moments of strife Gyokeres would talk to himself in Swedish in a bid to cajole.
It was observed, too, that Gyokeres is not much of an advisor or mentor on the pitch. His leadership comes via his on-pitch performance. Amorim successfully channelled that.
One of Amorim’s key messages relayed to Gyokeres in the early days at Sporting was to focus less on where he had arrived from – Coventry City in the second tier of English football – and focus more on the quality of the tools around him. Believe you belong was a key mantra.
Team dinners were routine in Gyokeres’ early days as Amorim looked to speed up the forming of close bonds that would pay dividend on the pitch. Manchester United’s most recent pre-season tour saw a similar focus. What elicited the maximum from Gyokeres is now a formula Amorim is turning to again in Manchester.
‘The style of play we had under him suited me perfectly,’ Gyokeres told France Football last month of his time working with Amorim.
‘We won two championships in a row for the first time in 71 years. It’s an incredible achievement and, of course, Ruben Amorim played a big part in that. I can’t thank him enough.’
On Friday, Arteta pointed to the ‘most important’ part of Gyokeres’ career and chose to overlook his time at Sporting.
‘That was probably the most important part of his career,’ Arteta said of Gyokeres’ spell with Brighton in 2021.
‘When he had to accept a different role and don’t play and value other things. So he had to improve and evolve, and I think that’s the moment where he took the platform and went to another level. That’s sometimes very useful in your career at a young age.’
Gyokeres knows, as does Amorim, that the answer is and always will be their time together at Sporting. Now it is time to write new chapters, this time as rivals.
Let the battle commence…
