Coventry City have to look no further than "€100 million" man as best ever bargain | OneFootball

Viktor Gyökeres cost the Sky Blues just £1 million in July 2021, but now has a release clause of €100 million set at Sporting CP.

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This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Coventry City faced several tough years financially in the 2010s, before an up-turn in fortunes that has resulted in their rise back to the Championship top-half.

The Sky Blues have had to be smart with their transfer policy during this time, but a decision made in January 2021 may bring more success to the club, a year after the player left England.

Viktor Gyökeres originally joined Coventry on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion, before making the move permanent six months later.

The Swedish striker, who is now 26, scored 43 goals in 116 games at the CBS Arena, before joining one of Portugal's biggest teams, Sporting Clube de Portugal.

Gyökeres cost Coventry just £1 million in the summer of 2021, and despite already making a profit, there is a chance that even more money could be made by the Championship club before the transfer window is over.

Gyökeres is Coventry's biggest ever bargain

Despite a less than inspiring loan in the Midlands, Mark Robins sanctioned the £1 million transfer, a deal that paid off in full two years later.

Gyökeres scored 17 league goals in his first full season with the club, before finding the back of the net 21 times in the following campaign as Coventry reached the play-off final. Although the striker had been red-hot in the regular season, he could not stop Luton Town from beating his side on penalties and reaching the Premier League at Wembley.

This failure to win promotion saw the Sweden international sold to Sporting CP for €20 million plus add-ons of €4 million, and in FLW's Coventry Fan Pundit, Neil Littlewood's, eyes, he is the club's biggest ever bargain, especially now that Gyökeres has a release clause of €100 million.

Neil said: "I don't think you can look past Viktor Gyökeres. We signed him for £1 million and then sold him for £22 million.

"We've just got another £2 million because they've bought out a sell-on clause, and we'll get 10% of any profit made by a sale, and now he has a €100,000,000 release clause.

"So that could be worth up to £30 million off a £1,000,000 investment, so I can't see many bargains that are better than that."

Gyökeres' sale led to a revamp of Coventry's team

Although Coventry fans were disappointed about the sale of their talisman, the long-term positives have certainly outweighed the negatives.

Robins was able to bring the likes of Haji Wright, Liam Kitching and Milan Van Ewjik to the club, building a stronger overall squad.

The results were not immediately effective at the CBS Arena, however, with more money potentially inbound from their former Swedish star, Neil will always look back on that sale as beneficial: "We really built a squad based on the money that we made from selling him.

"We brought in Ellis Simms, Wright, Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and Milan van Ewijk with that money and these are players that at the minute are the first names on the team sheet, so I can't look past him in all honesty."