Viktor Gyokeres moving to Arsenal or Chelsea next year will benefit Brighton and Hove Albion financially, if not necessarily on the pitch.
Both are among the Premier League clubs reportedly interested in the Swedish international, with Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur linked over recent months. Crystal Palace and West Ham United were also said to be admirers of the then Coventry City player last year before Gyokeres signed for Sporting.
The Championship club have received around £20million over the past 18 months, including the initial fee paid by the current Portuguese champions and the add-ons the centre-forward has already triggered. That could rise even further because of a sell-on clause the Sky Blues negotiated last summer.
Coventry Live has previously reported that it will earn the Sky Blues ten percent of the difference between the £20million they sold Gyokeres for and any fee Sporting receives. However, the Coventry owner, Doug King, has told talkSPORT that they will have to pay a significant amount of what the clause entitles them to Brighton, who the Sky Blues paid around £1million to sign Gyokeres approaching four years ago.
“That was a tough negotiation with Sporting Lisbon,” King recalled. “If he does get moved on to another chapter in his career, then we’ll benefit, but I’m not holding my breath; we’re not running the club on that basis [but] we’ll take it when and if it comes.
“But realise as well that a large part of anything that comes our way heads down to his original club at Brighton. Everybody seems to think it goes straight into the coffers, but these sell-ons accumulate down the chain, so you need to be bringing them up from your academy, hopefully, to get the full 100%, but a lot of it still goes down the chain.”
