Cristiano Ronaldo offered public backing for Arsenal\u2019s summer signing Viktor Gy\u00f6keres, describing him as “a special player” despite a mixed opening to his time at the Emirates.<\/p>\n
Gy\u00f6keres made a brief cameo in the defeat to Tottenham Hotspur that amounted to two touches. He was given a first start against Villarreal and lasted 63 minutes in a 3\u20132 reverse at the Emirates Stadium. Those early displays prompted discussion about the club\u2019s marquee recruit and an early intervention from the manager defending the signing before the forward had established himself in competitive action.<\/p>\n
Ronaldo, speaking after Al Nassr\u2019s recent friendly against Rio Ave, underlined his view of the player while reflecting on Gy\u00f6keres\u2019s record at Sporting CP. The striker scored 97 goals in 102 appearances for Sporting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe only miss those who are there, that\u2019s what they say. I believe Sporting will be competitive,\u201d he told assembled reporters after Al Nassr\u2019s recent friendly against Rio Ave.<\/p>\n
\u201cGy\u00f6keres was a special player, but the team will have to adapt. I believe [Luis Javier] Su\u00e1rez, who arrived from Almer\u00eda, is an excellent forward. [Conrad] Harder is also a good player, young, and needs time. I saw the Super Cup; Sporting performed well against Benfica, but they didn\u2019t win because they couldn\u2019t\u2014that\u2019s football.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Arsenal forward Ian Wright added his own perspective on Gy\u00f6keres\u2019s attitude in training, likening the Swede\u2019s hunger to his own experience of arriving at the club later in his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard Mark Robins from Coventry say that every time Gy\u00f6keres trained, he looked like somebody in a rush, in a hurry, he needs to make up time and I totally got that because once I got to Arsenal I realised I was in a place where I could make up time,\u201d Wright mused.<\/p>\n
The comments from Ronaldo and Wright frame the early picture: a player with a strong scoring record and evident drive, whose form and fit with the team will be judged as minutes and competitive fixtures accumulate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ronaldo praises Gy\u00f6keres as ‘a special player’ after limited minutes at Arsenal; calls for patience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[452,180,296],"class_list":["post-1400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","tag-cristiano-ronaldo","tag-player-news","tag-viktor-gyokeres"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1402,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400\/revisions\/1402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}