Man Utd 'pull ahead' in Viktor Gyokeres transfer race as Sir Jim Ratcliffe actions pay off

Manchester United are reportedly ready to sign off on a £60million transfer swoop of Viktor Gyokeres, directly as a result of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s savings. The INEOS chief has been cost-cutting since his arrival to Old Trafford, which has included 250 job cuts and a further 200 further departures expected.

The Red Devils recently announced that their total operating expenses have fallen by £41.6million to £162.1m in the latest quarterly club accounts. The Sun claim that such a financial boost has allowed the club to meet Sporting CP’s asking price for their talisman. Gyokeres does have an £82million release clause, but the Liga Portugal champions are willing to do a deal at £60m. Arsenal also retain a strong interest in the Sweden striker, but they have RB Leipzig wonderkid Benjamin Sesko in their sights too.

United are ready to pip Arsenal to Gyokeres, however, with money now available to spend despite already sealing a deal for Matheus Cunha and talks underway to land Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo.

Gyokeres had been linked with a move to Old Trafford in the January window, which would have seen him link up with former boss Ruben Amorim once again, but the United head coach promised not to sign any of his ex-players mid-season.

He failed to rule out the possibility of United signing Sporting players in the windows to follow, however.

"I won't [sign Sporting players] in January, that's what I said," Amorim previously confirmed. "I don't know about the summer.

"The first point is to hold on until the summer. Sporting players are very good players, I don't know, we'll see. I know the phenomenon of football especially in England, and I know how things change.”

Gyokeres is said to be willing to head to Manchester, even though United are unable to offer any form of European football.

He pulled out of Sweden’s squad for the international break owing to a minor injury concern, though national team boss Jon Dahl Tomasson has denied the suggestion that Gyokeres’ absence is related to the engulfing transfer saga.

"No,” he rubbished. “He felt a small injury and our medical team was already aware of it and we decided, together, to release him. I spoke to Viktor last week. He hasn’t trained much in the last few weeks and was feeling some discomfort because of a small injury.

"I was happy to see him and have him with us in this training camp. It says a lot about Viktor, how much he wants to get involved. We're thinking about it [a replacement] and need to talk more about it. In a perfect world, we have all players available."