Ruben Amorim's past and present collide with Gyokeres vs Sesko battle

Independent

9 hours ago

Ruben Amorim has spent £200m on a new forward line. He will see the player who may be the greatest advertisement for his management on the pitch on Sunday. Just not in a Manchester United shirt. Amorim's alchemy is not apparent in Benjamin Sesko, Bryan Mbeumo or Matheus Cunha. Not yet, anyway.
But a reunion with the Arsenal debutant Viktor Gyokeres provides a comparison with Sesko, the striker he did purchase this summer. For both clubs, really, given that Arsenal's choice boiled down to the Slovenian and the Swede. They opted for the man transformed into one of Europe's hottest properties by Amorim.
For United, it is an assessment of a centre-forward who has spent a week working with Amorim against one who had 16 months under his tutelage. Gyokeres scored 65 goals for the Portuguese coach in a season and a third at Sporting CP. Without that, Sesko's bow at Old Trafford on Sunday could have been for Arsenal.
It wasn't a direct choice between the two for United. Amorim admires Gyokeres but they always felt his preference was to go to Arsenal. They concentrated on attainable targets. And so, instead of briefing Bruno Fernandes on how to find Gyokeres, Amorim will be using his knowledge of the striker to try and prepare Harry Maguire, Leny Yoro and co to stop him.
Gyokeres is the senior figure: 27 years old to Sesko's 22, with six seasons on the books of English clubs to none. But no Premier League appearances: his only games for Brighton came in the cups. He was loaned to Swansea and Coventry, before being sold to the latter. He scored 22 goals in his last season in the Midlands. And then, transformed by Amorim, 97 in 102 games for Sporting.
Amorim preferred to credit the club for the inspired decision to buy Gyokeres; indeed recruitment was headed by Hugo Viana, now Manchester City's director of football. 'In Sporting they have a very good group of scouting because they live from that, from the players they can buy and sell to survive,' he explained.
Yet if he thinks the Premier League poses a new challenge for arrivals from both Germany and Portugal – 'it is a different league, the physicality is different,' he said – he alluded to Arsenal's longstanding lack of a genuine No 9 or prolific goalscorer. 'He is a very good player. He is going to give [them] different characteristics. It is going be different if it is Viktor or [Kai] Havertz [in attack] so we need to be prepared for that but it is not a surprise to see Viktor at a big club in England.'
Or Sesko, given Arsenal's lengthy pursuit of him and Newcastle's bid for him. If the price RB Leipzig had long quoted, of €100m, was off-putting, it was notable that Arsenal got Gyokeres cheaper, at £54m, than United acquired Sesko, for an initial £66.3m. Add-ons could take the deal to £73.7m, or €85m. It makes him costlier even than Cunha and Mbeumo. Amorim did not shy away from the size of the fee. And yet, if Gyokeres is bought to be the finished article, Sesko is a work in progress.
'He's going to learn but he has great potential,' Amorim said. 'I can see Ben being a striker for Manchester United for a lot of years. That is why we pay so much money to have a striker that will have his history in our club.'
Sesko could be United's No 9 for a decade. Yet the same was said two years ago of Rasmus Hojlund. Now he may be farmed out on loan to AC Milan. The Dane, a £72m buy, went unused in last week's friendly against Fiorentina when Mason Mount played as a false nine. Hojlund's form was mixed before Amorim's arrival but he delivered far more for Erik ten Hag.
If Gyokeres is the advertisement for the Portuguese's management, Hojlund is the indictment of it. Amorim could have cited Gyokeres in his sales pitch to Sesko; he presumably did not mention Hojlund.
For now, however, United can concentrate on Sesko. First impressions have been positive. 'He is always thinking about football, he's really obsessed about that and that is a good thing,' smiled Amorim. 'You don't have to think about that aspect with that young guy. I don't need to tell Ben: 'Ben, this is Manchester United, a lot of pressure, you have to perform, you need to be ready for the physicality…' With that guy I don't have that concern. I have the opposite: enjoy [it] a little bit.'
United hope they will enjoy Sesko's stay; his history, as Amorim put it. If a player who scored 13 league goals last season is one for the future, a man who got 39 is bought for the here and now, for a title challenge.
'I can only say how happy we are to have him,' said Arteta of Gyokeres. 'He is going to have a tremendous impact in the team and his adaptation has been really, really good. It's for us creating the right context for Viktor to do what he does the best, which is to score goals.'
And in large numbers. For the forward Arsenal could have signed and the attacker they did, a debut goal would feel auspicious. It has been the summer of the striking buy in the Premier League. Amorim shaped one and signed another. And on Sunday, he could be harmed by his past or revelling in his present.