Middlesbrough FC must still have Viktor Gyokeres transfer regret | OneFootball

Chris Wilder confessed that Gyokeres was a transfer target for Boro in the summer window of 2022.

Chris Wilder was looking to make a big investment into his forward line in the 2022 summer transfer window, as Middlesbrough set their sights on Premier League promotion.

Newcastle United striker Dwight Gayle, Preston North End's Emil Riis, and Groningen's Jorgen Strand Larsen were all linked with moves to the Riverside Stadium, but none ever ended up materialising.

Another name that was heavily linked with a move to Middlesbrough was Coventry City striker Viktor Gyokeres, who'd just enjoyed a 17-goal season in the Championship for the Sky Blues.

A deal couldn't be completed though, something that Boro have likely regretted ever since.

Chris Wilder reveals Middlesbrough missed out on signing Coventry City striker Viktor Gyokeres

Football League World exclusively revealed that Middlesbrough were interested in signing Gyokeres on 26 May 2022, with Burnley and Fulham also named as potential suitors for the Sweden international.

Over the following weeks, Boro continued to be linked with Coventry's star striker, with Wilder fully aware of how big an addition to his strike department he would be.

As the summer deadline passed, however, Gyokeres remained a Sky Blues player, with the Teessiders instead bringing in Marcus Forss from Brentford and Matthew Hoppe from RCD Mallorca on permanent deals, as well as a loan deal for Rodrigo Muniz from Fulham respectively.

Wilder got his attacking reinforcements, but there was a lingering feeling on Teesside that the club may have had to settle for options that weren't their preferred recruits.

As fate would have it, Gyokeres would score the winning goal as Coventry beat Middlesbrough 1-0 in their first Championship meeting of the 2022/23 season in early October, and speaking post-match, Wilder confessed that had things gone the way he wanted, the Swede would've been wearing red and white that day.

Wilder said: “Yes, we made an inquiry so that was between club to club so there’s nothing hiding with that. Obviously in the summer we sold a couple of players and had that opportunity and were ambitious in terms of going and getting a centre-forward and we made an inquiry, which I think we were within our rights to.

“But as I have said, I thought he (Gyokeres) was outstanding (today). Coventry knew about it, from chief exec to chief exec and from club to club, so there was nothing behind closed doors or anything and that’s where it went. But there was an interest.”

When asked if he first witnessed Gyokeres' ability the season before, Wilder added: “Yes, that’s the reason we were interested.”

Viktor Gyokeres goes on to become one of world football's most in-demand strikers with Sporting CP

Coventry would continue to be Middlesbrough's nemesis that season, as a 1-1 draw on the final day of the season set up a two-legged play-off semi-final between the two clubs.

The Sky Blues would win by a 1-0 aggregate scoreline, before losing to Luton Town on penalties in the play-off final at Wembley Stadium.

Gyokeres would bag 22 goals in all competitions that year, and so with Coventry resigned to another season in the second tier of English football, the prolific striker was now granted the opportunity to seek his well-earned big-money move.

Portugal was the destination, as he signed for Sporting CP in a deal understood to be worth £20m. From what he's gone on to achieve at the Lisbon-based outfit, even that figure looks like a real bargain.

A staggering 43 goals and 14 assists in 50 total appearances saw him record one of the most impressive seasons by a striker in recent European football memory.

Heading into the final week of January 2025, Gyokeres had already hit the back of the net over 30 times in all competitions in the 2024/25 campaign, cementing himself as one of the hottest and most in-demand centre-forwards in world football.

How things might have been so different; that's what Middlesbrough Football Club must think to themselves when watching their former transfer target tear up European football in the following seasons.

Had they secured his signature in the summer of 2022, then Boro could've fielded perhaps what would've become the Championship's all-time deadliest strike pairing.

2022/23 was also the season that Chuba Akpom emerged from the shadows at the Riverside before going on to score 28 times in the second tier, crowning him as the league's top goalscorer that year.

Carrick transformed Akpom into an attacking midfielder that year, operating in the number 10 role behind the main striker. That could've been Gyokeres, and had it been, that would surely have been a partnership that would've fired Middlesbrough to the Premier League.

Thankfully for the rest of the Championship, that nightmare fuel scenario never happened, but how it could've changed Boro's fortunes both on and off the pitch if a deal was struck.