Gyokeres' mentor and ex-Arsenal star makes bold prediction ahead of transfer

Viktor Gyokeres has plundered goals at Sporting Lisbon and his former mentor - and ex-Arsenal player - Anders Limpar is convinced he will continue his exploits in north London

Viktor Gyokeres has been backed to score 25 goals in his debut campaign with Arsenal. Gyokeres is now on the verge of joining the Gunners following a long and increasingly bitter exit from Sporting Lisbon.

Arsenal and Sporting verbally agreed a deal in principle worth an initial £55million plus £8.6m in add-ons and bonuses for Gyokeres a few weeks ago. But negotiations continued over the exact structure of the deal, dragging it out amid rumours that Manchester United could hijack the move.

Those negotiations have now finally reached a conclusion, with Gyokeres set to sign a five-year contract at Arsenal. He banged in 54 goals in 52 games for Sporting last season and 97 in 102 matches altogether with the club and expectations with be high in north London.

Anders Limpar spent four years at Arsenal in the early 1990s and has a unique insight into the former Coventry striker, having mentored him when he was a youngster at Swedish side Brommapojkarna. Limpar is in no doubt that Gyokeres will hit the ground running in Mikel Arteta’s side.

“I know that pretty much all the Arsenal players are top professionals,” he told fotbolldirekt.se. “I've been to the training ground, spoken to Arteta. He's Mr 100 per cent professional. And that's what you get from Viktor.

“He's such a prospect when it comes to looking after himself, no scandals, he is a hell of a player. He's a No.9, and can sniff a goal chance. He's going to be the perfect icing on the cake at Arsenal.

“And I don't have to look down on [Kai] Havertz, or [Gabriel] Jesus. But bringing in Viktor at this moment, at his best age and form. He's a goalscoring machine and with all the supply from the wings and from [Martin] Odegaard, he's going to score 25 goals.”

Limpar has been calling for Arsenal to sign Gyokeres for some time, having been convinced that he is the missing piece of the jigsaw. “I know Gyokeres very well personally, I was a bit of a mentor for him when he played for Brommapojkarna, he and Ludwig Augustinsson. So, I’ve talked a lot about professional life with him,” the Swede said in November.

“He’s a fantastically hardworking forward who scores a lot of goals. If we at Arsenal [were to] buy Gyokeres, then he will definitely call me. But then to see Gyokeres at Arsenal, that would be crazy. His work rate, he runs like a madman. When it doesn’t work out for Viktor, he works his way into the game with uncomfortable runs.

“When other top forwards aren’t doing well, they don’t work so hard for the team, they save their energy, Viktor never saves his energy. When things are a bit slow, he works his way into a game with runs, that’s why it has gone so well.”