Ruben Amorim sends Man United clear Viktor Gyokeres transfer message after Man City win

Sporting's outgoing manager Ruben Amorim refused to humour the idea of signing Viktor Gyokeres for Manchester United despite his hat-trick against Manchester City in the Champions League.

Amorim was taking charge of Sporting for the final time in Lisbon on Tuesday night and he certainly went out with a bang. City started the stronger and took an early lead through Phil Foden but once Gyokeres equalised just before the interval, the tide had turned.

Maximiliano Araujo gave Sporting the lead less than a minute after the break before Gyokeres' emphatic penalties secured victory for the Lisbon club. In his post-match interview, Amorim began by paying tribute to the farewell afforded to him.

READ MORE: What Sporting players did for Amorim

READ MORE: Gyokeres was once sold by Ashworth - now he has destroyed City

"Looking at the game, it was written in stone," he explained in his post-match press conference. "The opponent missing a penalty [when the score was 3-1].

"There are days when things have to happen in a certain way. We started the second half very well.

"The crowd started to get excited. I couldn't ask for another farewell. I'm very happy with this moment."

After paying tribute to the fans, the line of questioning shifted to Gyokeres and whether he was on Amorim's radar for United. However, the Portuguese head coach was clear with his thoughts on this.

"Gyokeres? I've just made peace with them [Sporting], I'm not even going to joke about it [signing him for United]," Amorim insisted.

"Gyokeres is at a big club and now all he has to do is finish the season here." Gyokeres has now scored 20 goals in 16 appearances for Sporting this campaign.

Speaking to TNT Sports, Amorim added: "No, no no. I cannot be funny with that. In this moment it was tough for me to leave, if I am starting joking about that with your cameras I have problems. This is my city, this is my country so I will respect [that] Viktor has to stay until the end of the season and then his life is going, maybe, somewhere else."

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