Tag: Ruben Amorim

Improvement under Amorim led to big money Gunners move

Young Viktor Gyökeres in action for Brighton against his future employer

IT WAS SAID Coventry City banked a club-record £17.5million with a further £3.5m in add-ons (and Albion earned a decent sell-on percentage too) when Viktor Gyökeres left the UK for Sporting Lisbon.

If Gyökeres was just warming up at Coventry, as I described in my previous blog post, he caught fire at Sporting, scoring an astonishing 43 goals in 50 games in his first season. And it got better in his second season, racking up 54 goals in 52 appearances.

ESPN asked Sporting legend and former Portugal centre-back Daniel Carriço for his assessment, and he said: “Gyökeres improved not only as a player, but Ruben (Amorim) has a lot of dynamics as a coach, wanting to play with the ball, and Gyökeres was like a new weapon for him.

“He was the biggest weapon against all the teams and Ruben loved to have him in his first XI. Amorim improved his game in all the ways, not only physically, but technically he improved a lot. He knows how to move and beat defenders.”

His near goal-a-game scoring exploits for Sporting helped them to back-to-back league titles and also the Portuguese Cup and after playing against Arsenal in the Champions League in 2024-25, Mikel Arteta swooped to sign him for the Gunners for a reported £63.5m.

“I just felt that it was the right club for me,” said Gyökeres. “When I was playing against Arsenal last season, I could really feel it was a very strong team and very difficult to play against. That made me choose Arsenal, and of course, all the history the club has and the massive fanbase.”

He was touched by the support he received from Arsenal fans before he’d even completed his move and said: “It’s been amazing to see all the support that they have already given me before I even arrived. That’s what it’s all about.

“It’s going to be very nice to see them in the stadiums as well. To be a part of this club and to score in this kit and with this badge in front of all the supporters, I can’t wait. It will be an amazing feeling.”

Although he scored three times in four matches in the early part of the season, the player faced a certain amount of criticism which he addressed in an exclusive interview with Patrick Davison of Sky Sports.

“You have to believe in yourself and keep going, no matter what happens – whether that’s on the pitch or outside,” he said. “I don’t think you have to take in what everyone around you says. You don’t have to listen to everything you hear.”

He’d got used to the scrutiny in Portugal and told Davison: “They live for football there as well. So, in one sense, it’s a bit similar but of course it’s much, much bigger here. They analyse everything you do. But that’s the way it is, there’s nothing wrong with that.

“Maybe it isn’t my no. 1 priority to read everything that’s being said or what people write. It’s just think about the things you can control and do those things right.

Gyökeres went on to top score with 21 goals across all competitions from 40 starts and 15 sub appearances as Arsenal won the Premier League title – their first for 23 years.

However, midway through the season, when the Swede had only scored six in 19 appearances across all competitions, Arteta faced questions about his big money signing.

“The level of attention on him hasn’t changed since when he signed to today,” Arteta told ESPN. “It is normal. Everybody was so excited to bring a nine into the club. We did it. We brought a player with an incredible goalscoring record who had to adapt to the league. He had no pre-season.

“The first few weeks were difficult because physically he wasn’t in his best state and he is a player who needs that like any other player in this league almost to perform at that level. Then he kicked on, he had a really good period and he got injured.

“Now, I saw a lot of positive things in the last two games that he’s done. We need to continue to tweak and understand him a little bit better in certain situations and he needs to do the same. But that’s about time and we have full support for him.”

The manager was confident better things were to come from the player and added: “You can imagine the global impact that you are going to have to deal with when you come to a big club and the expectation is as it is.

“But after you have to live it. Living it is always slightly different to your imagination. He is doing it with a lot of desire. His energy level, his commitment is absolutely top and we are all here to help him because we have all been here, we all need time, there are always moments where the strikers score more goals or less goals. We need to be there for him.”

As well as upping his club strike rate in the second half of the season, it was Gyökeres’ 89th-minute goal that sealed Sweden’s World Cup play-off victory over Poland in Stockholm in March.

Sweden boss Graham Potter was baffled that in spite of all the achievements, Gyökeres had still attracted flak in certain quarters.

Interviewed by Sky Sports ahead of the World Cup, he said: “The team have won the Premier League and got to the Champions League final, and he’s played most of those games, but he still gets the criticism.

“That’s the world we live in. But then you just look at him and you look at how much work he does and how he goes about his business. He’s an incredible character.”

Sweden didn’t cover themselves in glory at the World Cup, finishing third in their group and then being eliminated in a 3-0 defeat to France.

But Gyökeres got a goal and two assists as Sweden beat Tunisia 5-1 and he later told FIFA.com: “It can’t get much bigger than the World Cup. It’s incredible and I’m very proud.

“I think we have extremely talented players. With time, I think we’re going to be very, very good.”

Do Brighton have any regrets about letting Gyökeres go when they did?

Ever-diplomatic chief executive Barber told Sky Sports: “It depends on whether you say slipped through or progressed through. I would prefer to say progressed through.

“It’s always good when you spot a young talent, nurture them and you see them go on to even better things.”

Barber pointed out: “Viktor progressed exceptionally well – but he wanted to progress even further faster.

“At that time, we couldn’t guarantee him first-team football here. We were very happy to continue to loan Viktor so he could continue to progress.

“But I think it says a lot about Viktor himself that he wanted a more permanent base sooner. He eventually got that and the rest is history.”

Quick Vik sped to the very top after sluggish Albion start

VIKTOR GYÖKERES is certainly right up there in Brighton’s short list of ‘ones that got away’.

The striker left the Seagulls for Coventry in a £1m deal, went on to score almost a goal a game over two seasons for Sporting Lisbon, joined Arsenal for £63.5m in the summer of 2025, and played for Sweden at the 2026 World Cup finals.

His meteoric rise from Brighton ‘reject’ to one of Europe’s hottest strikers is a story that’s unsurprisingly been seized upon by various media outlets.

“Viktor, he was a young lad at the club and was he up to the level? Well, the manager (Chris Hughton) didn’t think he was up to the level,” former teammate Glenn Murray admitted when speaking with 10bet. “We were in a squad where we were in survival mode, and you couldn’t really bring lads in to develop them.

A rare Brighton first team outing for Gyökeres against Manchester United

“In all honesty, it was one of those situations where he made that hard decision to leave the Premier League and in hindsight, it was the right decision to leave.”

Murray added: “Did I see it coming what has happened? Probably not. It just shows what belief in yourself, other people’s belief and confidence can do for you.”

Born in Stockholm on 4 June 1998, Gyökeres was only five when he started playing football with IFK Aspudden-Tellus. He first drew the attention of football scouts after he had joined Stockholm-based club Brommapojkarna as a 16-year-old, initially as a winger.

“We saw that he had the abilities to be a No. 9 with his strength and breakthrough capacity and started to focus on those abilities,” Brommapojkarna scout David Eklund told ESPN. “He grew a lot and started to produce goals more and more regularly.”

He was also selected for Sweden’s national youth sides and he started to earn a ‘wonderkid’ tag. Some observers reckoned he was the country’s biggest attacking talent since Zlatan Ibrahimović.

Brighton agreed to sign him in September 2017 but he remained with Brommapojkarna until the end of their season, finishing in style with a hat-trick in his last game which earned the club promotion to the Allsvenskan as champions.

He arrived in Sussex in January 2018, initially linking up with the under-23s.

Ahead of the 2018-19 season, he saw action with the first team in pre-season friendlies, scoring the only goal of the game in a behind-closed-doors win over Nice at the French club’s training ground, going on for Murray on 34 minutes in a 1-1 draw with Swiss side St Gallen, replacing Solly March for the last 20 minutes of a 2-1 defeat to AFC Wimbledon and finally getting half an hour as sub for James Tilley in a 1-1 draw at Charlton.

That involvement led to him making his competitive first team debut in an inexperienced line-up that lost 1-0 at home to Southampton in the Carabao Cup. Fellow youngsters Ben Barclay and Will Collar also started and £17m (then) record signing Alireza Jahanbakhsh made his debut.

On as a sub at Bournemouth

January 2019 was a memorable month for Gyökeres: three days after going on as a late sub for Anthony Knockaert in Albion’s home FA Cup third round 3-1 win over Bournemouth, he made his full international debut for Sweden in a 1-0 defeat to Finland and on 11 January scored a goal in his country’s 2-2 draw with Iceland.

Gyökeres was then featured in the matchday programme for the home FA Cup fourth round 0-0 draw with West Brom, when he was again a sub. He started the replay at The Hawthorns when Albion won 3-1.

In the following round, he got on as a sub when replacing Jurgen Locadia in Albion’s 2-1 win over Derby County, although he wasn’t involved in the quarter or semi-final matches.

But with that small amount of first team involvement, and having scored seven times in 19 games for the under-23s, Gyökeres had done enough for Albion to offer him a new three-year contract.

On target from the penalty spot

After signing he said: “I like this club and it feels like they believe in me.

“I want to do my best to prove that I can do good things here. I moved to another country with another language, so of course it’s been different compared to Sweden, but I’ve settled in well.

“It’s been good to train with the first team and travel with them to away games this season – it’s been a great experience and hopefully there will be more of that in the future.

“Next season I want to do better than I’ve done this year. Of course, I’d like to play in the first team, but I’ve got to work hard in pre-season, see what happens and what is best for me.”

Alas, what happened next was the departure of Hughton and the arrival of Graham Potter (now Gyökeres’ manager with the Swedish national side).

Instead of continuing his development at Brighton, he was sent on a season-long loan to St Pauli (Fabian Hurzeler’s former side) in the second tier of the Bundesliga at the start of the 2019-20 season. He scored seven goals in 28 appearances in Germany before returning to the Albion.

When Gyökeres played his first game under Potter, it was at an empty Amex because of the Covid-19 pandemic. He scored (above) playing as a lone striker as Brighton beat Portsmouth 4-0 in the Carabao Cup after which Potter said: “He has got attributes that are different. It’s not the easiest  to play up front on his own. He kept going, he got his rewards at the end.”

Although he also played in the same competition’s 2-0 win over Preston North End and 3-0 defeat to Manchester United, the arrival of Danny Welbeck put another obstacle in the way of his first team opportunities and he was loaned out to Potter’s former club, Championship side Swansea City.

On making the move, Gyökeres admitted Potter and his assistants Billy Reid and Bjorn Hamberg had all recommended the move to south Wales. “I spoke to them a little bit as they had been here,” he told Swansea’s website. “They only had good things to say and that made me more comfortable to come here and play here.”

However, the loan was cut short after he’d made only three starts plus nine sub appearances and scored just one goal for Steve Cooper’s side, in an FA Cup third-round game at Stevenage.

He returned to Brighton but several things aligned that resulted in him joining Coventry City for the remainder of the season.

Chris Badlan, then head of recruitment for the Sky Blues, told ESPN: “Viktor is someone me and my chief scout at the time, Stuart Benthom, knew about when he was playing out in Sweden.

“As a scout, you need to know who the best 16/17-year-olds are who are playing on the continent. Brighton had signed him so we followed him in their under-23s, he then went to St. Pauli and we just kept tracking him like you always do.”

Coventry already had Albion’s Leo Østigård on loan and he convinced Gyökeres to join him and, as Badlan pointed out: “We had two or three centre-forwards injured at the same time so we could show him the opportunity. It all married up because he wanted to play and we needed a striker straight away.”

After scoring three times in 19 appearances, Gyökeres joined Coventry permanently in July 2021, reportedly for £1m, with manager Mark Robins saying: “Viktor is a talented striker with good power, pace and movement, and great potential. He showed a terrific attitude when he was with us on loan.

“He grew in confidence, and we hope that he will continue to show the same improvement and desire.”

According to Badlan, that summer Gyökeres spent his holiday time working hard on his conditioning. “He worked on his strengths. He was already a powerful runner but, all of a sudden, his shoulders, he got a bit more square, stronger in his core. It enabled him to roll defenders better.”

Badlan also reckoned much credit for the player’s development should go to former Manchester United forward Robins and his assistant Adi Viveash, who was used to nurturing talent having spent 10 years with Chelsea’s academy and under-23s.  

“They polished the rough diamond that he was. They simplified his game. They worked with him in identifying his best attributes.

“Mark, being an ex-striker, helped Viktor understand his body, getting his positioning right, where to make runs, when to get the timing right.”

And it paid off big time. He began the season with nine goals in his first 11 games finished the season as top scorer with 18 goals and repeated the feat in 2022-23, finishing on 22 as City made it to the Championship play-off final but lost on penalties to Luton Town.

It was at Coventry where he began his distinctive goal celebration – covering half his face with interlocking fingers to resemble a mask a la Bane, the villain in 2012 film The Dark Knight Rises.

Reporter Andy Turner, who has covered Coventry for the Coventry Telegraph for more than 20 years, was asked his opinion of the player by several media outlets.

“In training, he was known to be a little bit grumpy, and that was largely due to the fact that he wanted everything done the right way,” said Turner. “He had very high standards and made demands on his teammates. He was quite a serious guy off the pitch.

“On the pitch, he worked hard and was just really strong and a willing runner off the ball, a real team player as well. He was at his best when he had the ball at his feet and was running at defenders doing his thing.”

Similar thoughts came from Josh Kerr, who played in the same Albion under-23 side as Gyökeres. Interviewed by Sky Sports, Kerr said: “He’s probably one of the most ruthless players that I’ve seen when he’s on the halfway line and he’s going to goal from the left.

“It was just the pace and power, sometimes teams couldn’t cope with that.”

November 2022 player of the month award

Kerr highlighted the Swede’s willingness to put in a shift for the team, saying: “He would do it without you having to ask him – which is massive for certain teams or managers.

“He was just a good guy and that’s what you get from him. Works hard, does his job for the team.

“We obviously rated him highly then but we didn’t think he would kick on as much as he has, which has been quite incredible.”

The Telegraph’s Turner heaped praise on the player, saying: “He’s so strong on the ball, he protects the ball really well, he will take on two or three players in the box and will somehow get past them.

“He is a formidable striker. He is like an old school centre-forward in stature but he is very good with the ball at his feet. Technically he is good but he is very strong, it’s difficult to shrug him off the ball and he plays with a swagger.”

Maybe if Coventry had reached the Premier League in 2023, he would have stayed but plenty of clubs had noted his scoring prowess and, with a year left on his contract, he opted to move to Portugal to play for Sporting Lisbon under Ruben Amorim.

• See my pre-Arsenal blog post for what happened next.

Collyer breaks through at United after spurning Albion

DEFENSIVE midfielder Toby Collyer can genuinely be placed in the ‘one that got away’ category as far as Brighton are concerned.

Worthing-born Collyer excelled as a teenager in Albion’s youth set-up but chose to move on to Manchester United when he was 18.

He has since made it through to United’s first team, getting on as a sub in the last two matches under Ruben Amorim having been blooded by former boss Erik Ten Hag.

After involvement with the first team squad from February 2024 as a non-playing sub, he impressed in pre-season games and played in the Community Shield match at Wembley against Manchester City.

He made his Premier League debut as a half-time substitute for Casemiro when United lost 3-0 to Liverpool at Old Trafford and his first competitive start was in the 7-0 beating of Barnsley in the Carabao Cup, when he played at left-back.

Born in Worthing on 3 January 2004, Collyer’s talent began to be honed when he was only 11 playing for Albion’s under-12s squad.

He attended Angmering School and Ian Gooding, his former teacher, told the BBC: “Toby was the epitome of dedication. Even as a young student, he had an undeniable mentality and drive to succeed in top-level sport.

“His commitment to his studies and football was evident in everything he did.” Gooding said, “It was clear from the beginning that Toby wasn’t just a talented athlete; he was someone who truly wanted to excel and make a mark in the world of sports.”

Collyer made his debut for Brighton’s under-18s just a few weeks after turning 15 and never looked back.

“Even though he didn’t play a great deal at under-16 he still trained,” former Albion under-18s coach Mark Beard told Sussex Live. “You could see he was going to be a top-class player.

“He is a pleasure to coach. He is so low maintenance, what I mean by that is you don’t know he is there. He gets on with his job. He regularly put in displays of 8/10 at the least.

“You want 11 of these type of players in the team. You know what you’re going to get in training, he works hard, he wants to improve, he’s intelligent. He’s a good all-round kid.”

A defensive midfielder happy to tackle and control play from deep, he also showed his versatility by filling in at centre-back with Albion’s under-18s. He also captained England at under-16 and under-17 level, highlighting his leadership qualities and tendency to lead by example.

In an extended interview with the Manchester Evening News, Beard said: “I was made aware of Toby probably from around the age of under-14s. I was the u18 manager and he used to come up and train with us, despite being much younger and I gave him his debut toward the end of his under-15 year. He was always a little bit smaller back then and he seemed to shoot up in height suddenly when he became a scholar.

“Everyone would say he was the best player in the age group every year, but he was just one of them that you hardly noticed. He just got on with his job, there was no trouble and he worked hard.

“He took everything on board like a sponge. There were obviously a few things as he got older that we needed to work on and as he shot up a bit and he needed to redevelop.

“Toby sort of changed the way he played, so different types of passing, defending and he became a real good all-round midfielder once he’d learnt those two of three key areas.”

The coach admired the youngster’s ability to cover left and right from a central position, closing players down and winning the ball. “His ball retention was different class,” said Beard.

“I had such a good team at Brighton, with Evan Ferguson and players like that, and everyone would say Evan was unbelievable, but he’d touch the ball 10 times, score a goal and run about 8km.

“Toby would run around 13km every single game, he’d have 200 touches of the ball and have the best defensive duel win-rate. His stats would be astronomical, honestly, absolutely ridiculous.

“You really don’t get that with many players. He’d be under the radar, but those are the players you want in your team more than anyone else.”

Collyer captained England at under-16 and under-17 level and played 25 games for Albion’s under-18s and under-21s in the 2020-21 season. But he couldn’t agree terms on a new deal at Brighton, after which he was frozen out and given only one game in the 2021-22 season.

The teenager had a successful trial period with United, appearing in a friendly game for the club’s under-23s against Huddersfield Town, and impressed the coaching staff sufficiently to be offered a three-year contract.

There had been no shortage of suitors eager to take him on and Beard encouraged him to join United over the likes of Chelsea and Spurs.  As things transpired, he was the first (and only) signing of the Ralf Rangnick era and became a regular in United’s under-18s and under-21s.

Originally given a three-year contract, in July 2024 he had it extended to 2027 with an option to extend to 2028.

Injuries hampered his early days at United but under-21s manager Travis Binnion told the Manchester Evening News: “We’re talking about a really good young player with high potential. “When you have a spell out of the game and have a couple of injuries that stop you playing, it takes a while to get going, but when we signed him, we had no doubts about what he was capable of – he’s a fantastic athlete and effective without the ball.

“Toby is also making great strides with the ball, so we’re talking there about someone who can be really effective in all moments of the game.”

It was in pre-season ahead of the 2024-25 season that Collyer saw action for the first team for the first time, being handed the captain’s armband when part of a complete half-time team change in a 1-0 defeat to Rosenborg in Norway.

He then started the 2-0 win over Rangers before getting another 45 minutes against Arsenal in Los Angeles.

Interviewed by United media’s Sam Carney about his first experience of an overseas tour with the first team, he said: “It’s really, really, really valuable. Everyone wants to be able to play in the first team. So I think getting experiences like this in a stadium like this as well, it’s the top level, and obviously the opposition [was top level] as well today. 

“I’m taking everything step by step and hopefully I’ll get many more opportunities to show what I can do.”

Although United lost 2-1 to the Gunners, Collyer said: “I thought I had an okay game. I thought there was a lot of things I could have done better, but it’s great to experience a game like today and I can take it into the next game, and even into training tomorrow.”

United writer for The Athletic, Carl Anka, liked what he saw, observing: “Collyer is a calm operator on the ball, favouring safe, short passes either sideways or backwards, while showing himself capable of occasional long switch passes.

“He is also skilled at receiving the ball on the half turn, letting passes come across his body before swinging his hips around to protect the ball from opponents looking to pressure him.

“Tall, strong and with a good sense of how to delay opposition counter-attacks, there are moments where his play can resemble Declan Rice when he broke into West Ham United’s first-team squad.”

The reporter added: “Athletically gifted, Collyer can cover 20-30 yards quickly — but rather than sprint around with wild abandon in search of the ball, Collyer works to disrupt easy passes inside the opposition half. Collyer’s defensive work centres on blocking off the more obvious passes opponents can make before looking to intercept the ball for his team.”

Interviewed for United’s matchday programme, United Review, Collyer talked about sharing the field with the likes of Casemiro, Christian Eriksen and Bruno Fernandes.

“Without them, I wouldn’t be able to reach the level I’ve got to at the minute. I think as much as I’ve done hard work, they’ve worked hard with me as well to help me and give me tips. It’s massive for me.”

Collyer earned a call up to the England under-20 squad in October 2024, and United’s Binnion said: “He’s a fantastic lad. He’s got a superb attitude and he’s getting what he deserves.”

He was on the bench for United’s 3-3 Europa League draw with FC Porto at the beginning of October but, later that month, was ruled out by injury; reports reckoning he would be sidelined for a month.

Shortly after Ruud Van Nistelrooy took over as manager at Leicester, The Sun reported the former United assistant manager was keen to take Collyer on loan. The newspaper also reported that former Albion midfielder Steve Sidwell had tipped Collyer to be a “shining star just like Kobbie Mainoo.”

Collyer was plunged into the heat of battle as a substitute in United’s dramatic FA Cup third round win at Arsenal on 12 January 2025, and Steven Railston, Manchester United writer for the Manchester Evening News, liked what he saw.

“Toby Collyer made his first appearance under Ruben Amorim against Arsenal and took his chance with both hands,” wrote Railston.

“The youngster was introduced to the game with nine minutes of normal time remaining and deserves praise for the maturity he demonstrated under immense pressure.”

The reporter noted that Amorim chose to introduce Collyer over the more experienced Casemiro, who was available on the bench and wrote: “The 21-year-old embraced the occasion when it was possible to be overawed, seemed to cover every blade of grass and proved to United’s new head coach that he can provide value to the squad.”