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Jeff Stelling shares £18m Everton transfer reveal on Sky Sports, pundit reacts with Viktor Gyokeres verdict
Michael Dawson isn’t sure whether Coventry City striker Viktor Gyokeres will fix the problems Everton are having up front this season.
Sean Dyche is set to be appointed as the new Everton manager and it has been reported that Gyokeres, 24, is on his radar ahead of the January transfer window closing on Tuesday night (31 January).
On 27 January, Football League World reported that Dyche is an admirer of Gyokeres while Jeff Stelling said on Soccer Saturday (28 January) that the Swede is a big-money target of the incoming Blues manager.
As shown on the Sky Sports News YouTube account five seconds in, Stelling said: “Sean Dyche is about to take over as manager. Viktor Gyokeres is apparently his first transfer target for £18million.”
Later on in the clip (6m45s), Stelling said: “Viktor Gyokeres has been touted as moving in. 29 in 72 for Coventry in the latest spell there, he had a little loan spell before that. Could he be the answer?”
Sky Sports pundit Dawson replied, saying: “This is the kind of personnel Everton are having to look for and no disrespect to Gyokeres, he’s scored goals in the Championship but he’s unproven in the Premier League and he’d be going into a relegation battle.
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“One thing about Sean Dyche is he will play 4-4-2, he’ll get the ball up to Dominic Calvert-Lewin and he needs someone with him.
“They signed [Neal] Maupay, I don’t believe he was the answer for him to play the way he is.
“Gyokeres has 12 goals this season. He’s unproven. But Dyche, for me, is the right make to take over.”
Snobbish?
You hear it a lot, don’t you?
Whenever Premier League clubs are linked with players who aren’t in the Premier League, there’s always that dumbed-down cliche about how they’re unproven in England’s top-flight.
It’s boring and it’s a lazy response.
Erling Haaland wasn’t proven in the Premier League before Manchester City signed him in the summer.
Ivan Toney and Aleksandr Mitrovic, who have 13 and 11 Premier League goals respectively this season, both made names for themselves in the Championship before lighting up the charts in West London.
Miguel Almiron has nine goals this season and he was playing MLS before moving to the Premier League.
Gyokeres is 24 years of age, he’s a Sweden international, he’s scoring plenty of goals for a mid-table Championship club and he’s previously been on the books at Brighton, which must count for something with how good their recruitment is.
Dawson’s view is one we don’t agree with.
For £18million, Gyokeres could be a great signing.
Sure, he could be a flop. But talking down transfer targets because they’ve never played in the Premier League before is one of the most snobbish takes an English pundit can have.