Arsenal in the race to sign £42m sensation who’s “very similar” to Gyokeres

The last few days haven’t been particularly enjoyable for the Arsenal faithful.

Mikel Arteta’s side dropped more points in the Premier League thanks to a 1-1 draw away to Brighton & Hove Albion and then lost the first leg of their League Cup semi-final against Newcastle United 2-0 at home.

Both games made it abundantly clear that the Gunners are in desperate need of some attacking reinforcements this year, and one of the forwards they have been consistently linked with over the last six months is Sporting CP’s Viktor Gyokeres.

However, while that may be unlikely given his mammoth release clause, the North Londoners have been linked with another young striker this week who has been compared to the free-scoring Swede.

Arsenal target up-and-coming striker

According to a recent report from journalist Graeme Bailey, Arsenal are one of several teams interested in Sporting CP’s young striker, Conrad Harder.

Alongside the Gunners, Bailey has revealed that fellow Premier League sides Chelsea and West Ham United are just some of the other teams keen on bringing the promising poacher to England as soon as this month, despite only joining the Lisbon outfit in the summer.

Interestingly, despite there being a release clause worth €80m – £67m – in his contract, the report has revealed that it would take an offer of around €50m, which is about £42m, to tempt the Portuguese giants into selling.

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It could be a complicated and costly transfer to get over the line, but given how well Harder has been playing this season and the comparisons to Gyokeres, it’s one worth fighting for.

How Harder compares to Gyokeres

Now, the first thing to clear up is that, as Harder is still just 19 years old and in his first campaign with Sporting, it would be unjust to expect him to match Gyokeres’ frankly absurd level of output over the course of the full season.

However, the young Dane certainly isn’t goal-shy and has already racked up a reasonably impressive haul of seven goals and three assists in 22 first-team appearances for the club.

Moreover, what makes that already great rate of return even more impressive is the fact that he’s achieved it in just 718 minutes, which works out to an average of a goal involvement every 71.8 minutes.

Harder vs Gyokeres at Sporting
Player	Harder	Gyokeres
Appearances	22	29
Minutes	718′	2480′
Goals	7	31
Assists	3	6
Goal Involvements per Match	0.45	1.27
Minutes per Goal Involvement	71.8′	67′
All Stats via Transfermarkt

For context, the former Coventry City star has racked up a haul of 31 goals and six assists in 2480 minutes of first-team action, equating to a slightly better average of a goal involvement every 67 minutes.

With that said, what are the other similarities between the two Scandinavian strikers, aside from their outstanding ability in front of goal that is.

Well, according to respected analyst Ben Mattinson, who actually described the teenager as “very similar” to the Stockholm-born star, the pair share “running power, physicality and powerful ball-striking.”

However, he does preface that, as things stand, the youngster is “much more one-footed,” although, given his current rate of output as an understudy, that does not seem to be a massive problem.

Ultimately, while Arsenal fans would understandably rather their club went out and splashed the big bucks on the utterly sublime Gyokeres this year, that seems increasingly unlikely.

Therefore, if Arteta and Co want to continue future-proofing the squad and sign a very similar player to the Swede for millions less, then securing Harder’s services could be the right move – so long as someone else doesn’t beat them to it.