Lucas Perez, IF it even happens. Was he our number one target?by KM
Well, well, I’m back again and you may be sick of me, but relatively strong rumours suggest we might BRING SOMEBODY IN! When you are an Arsenal fan that is enough to get you excited… This is exactly how low we’ve gone, but wait! It’s not certain yet, and until it comes out on Arsenal.com I would not believe it but still.
The notes from this transfers for me are a few – starting with the fact Everton were close to signing him. Why do we try to intercept the move at the last second? Don’t we have scouts? If we really like him then why are bringing him in at the end of the window after a shambolic start to the season?
You all know why. Because our number one target Jamie Vardy rejected us to stay with Leicester. It’s sad we can’t convince a player from Leicester to join us. Chelsea got Kante and they finished mid-tabled! We cannot persuade top players to join us and ask yourself why? We have a gem of a stadium, we’re based in one of Europes top cities, play in a league full of competition and we are cash full.
One of our board members even said we could bring anyone bar Ronaldo and Messi. Why don’t we do it then? Ah yes… Arsene. Players once used to want to play for him, now they don’t and it’s no surprise. Why would you want to play for an old man with old ideas running a football club like a business.
Players want success and money. We could offer both if we want, but we don’t. The only ambition comes from the players themselves. Why do the players need to organise team talks to say that things need to improve? It happened after we lost to Southampton two years back. And Southampton is a painful topic, because we just cannot beat them away.
The same way we cannot win at Stoke! Arsene has so much bogey grounds it’s virtually impossible to win the league when there are so many points we cannot get. And that’s mid-table teams… So even if we do add Lucas Perez, will something really change? Will he even play instead of Giroud, because we all know Arsene has his go-to men, even if they don’t deliver.
Arsene is soft. We talk about friendly atmosphere… Mourinho said he came to United not to have fun, but to work hard. Arsene says he’s working hard and I can see that – 1 point- and how we try to hijack Everton’s transfer targets, because the ones we had rejected us, because we didn’t want to cough up those few extra pounds.
We’re trying to rescue our transfer window in the end (ONCE AGAIN…) just like we’ll be trying to rescue our season, come next round, because we are already miles behind. The sad reality is I’d be so excited if we sign a striker and a defender that would be other than Giroud and Mertesacker. I literally don’t care who they are as long as SOMETHING changes at Arsenal.
Hopefully new additions will come, but I don’t rule Wenger coming out with a statement like “We finished second with this squad last year, so (despite everybody else improving greatly) we might do it again”! Pep destroyed Hart’s City career, despite the fact he’s a good goalkeeper, because he doesn’t suit his style. Same happened to Schweinsteiger at United.
Big managers have big ambitions. We have… I don’t know, you tell me. Because I literally cannot figure out a single reason for Arsene to keep doing this, unless his will for power. He has money, all the money most of us would never have. He loves power so much, he split with his wife at an age of 60+.
When you love the club it’s never easy to give up. You always try to get to the slightest of hope, but hope starts where Arsene ends. The questions of another yes-man manager may be true, but at least we’ll be 100% certain that’s the fault. Because if the monies are available and we’re not spending them, then it’s clearly only one mans fault. Even if we have just 60 million, we still could’ve added 3 players at an accurate time earlier in the window.
Fingers crossed we at least get Lucas on board, because we need fresh faces. And he might be a surprise. Who knows right? Not like we could’ve added proven quality but I’d rather gamble on him, rather than wait for Theo or Giroud to flourish or put Alexis up front. I’ve seen those movies! it doesn’t work.
Konstantin
I hope Perez gets to start ahead of Giroud and hope he scores 25 or more. It would be nice not to have deal with Giroud and his moods any longer.
Having said that, the caliber and timing of this signing (if he really comes) are disappointing.
Why did we not bring him in earlier so he could have started against Liverpool? Probably because he wasn’t on the list “till last week”.
At least we beat Everton to a signing.
he is very different to giroud – thats a definite plus.
plus evertons scout- formerly of Leicester was keen – another plus- guy has an eye for a gem
but we have to manage our expectations here…
he has a buyout of 17 million. for a striker thats the bargain basement, plus the only team to activate it was …everton…every team in top leagues of europe have a scouting network- do you really think if he was top top he wouldnt have been bought already at such a great price?
so all this talk of similarities to griezmann vardy are quite absurd.
but on a youtube compilation he looks great- so we will hope that becomes a reality
but lets not give him a hard time if he doesnt set the league alight-
quality strikers are worth 3-4 times that so we need to be realistic.
i get where you are going at but not a lot of the top teams were in the need of a top striker the ones who were already bought a striker at the start i.e. chelsea and man u and man city ( nolito) and tottenham, of course there should have been other top clubs in search of a striker but i think it shouldn’t be a knock-down that we were the only one who triggered the clause but i agree with all the other things you said the its absurd to compare him with griez and vardy and we have to be patient with him
nice article….but why is his Wikipedia profile updated to an Arsenal player. I wanted to make some research bout him and came across being an arsenal player from 25th August. anyways that aside. he looks like a Wenger’s signing.
only one question now i have for the whole world which is after all the yabbing and blabbing bout signing ONLY a quality player that would improve us, so finally Lucas Perez is this player that we’ve all been seeking for? at this point if this player is what Wenger defines as quality while the likes of Suarez, lewa n Auba are just money and quantity then i give up. someone please shoot me in the head
I know it sounds like bleating, but this guy is almost 28. He has already been half way around Europe without success and the super goal we see on youtube was about 3 years ago and not with Deporto. At 17 mill how much will the buy on that Wenger insists retrieve.Why hasn’t he been snapped up before under the noses of Real and Barca. I’m afraid that I have to agree that this smells like a dose of panic. As for the other guy he wouldn’t have been in my top five. I really hope I’m very wrong.
LOL!! I’m loving this!! you people just can’t stop whining, hey? I’m sure if deportivo had demanded 50 mil for him, you would have been all excited about him!
Actually I would have been even more displeased!!! We the Arsenal fans have good reason to whine, as well as good reason to be disappointed with Arsenal investing in this player who for me is a risk considering our circumstances. This year is no different then the previous transfer windows whereby Wenger panics at the 11th hour and tries to buy any player from the basement bucket… You can youtube any player (search… players names + goals) and you’ll see a compilation that will make that player look to be on the same level as the best strikers around. I truly hope that he is successful at Arsenal if he joins but for now I am disappointed with this purchase and the transfer policy being enforced at Arsenal…
i guessed you didn,t watch the video because you would know the goals he scored were while wearing the blue and white stripes of deportivo la coruna or you only had to watch the opposition barca….
tissiam.You obviously c an’t read.The goal Perez scored which was showcased on youtube was in 2012 and when he was playing for Ukranian side F.C. Karpaty agalnst Krybas. I hope he does well. But it’s still a panic buy.
ALL his goals and assists from LAST SEASON are on this page…
http://www.justarsenal.com/who-is-the-arsenal-target-lucas-perez-plus-video-of-all-goals-last-season/64601
Good article on him: https://moarfootball.com/2016/08/25/a-deportivo-la-coruna-fan-on-lucas-perez/
well you have to forgive me with english not being my first language!i thought he would have seen the video posted on this site yesterday anyway i too hope he does well:)
We signed cazorla when he was 27 from the same league as madrid and barca for £10 million (according to wikipedia but that seems wrong) so proffetic’s argument seems kind of invalid now cazorla is one of our best players
Tell this Proffetic the age of Vardy and was it not just last season that he came to prominence?
Okay. Perez will now cost 56M.
What is your argument. I believe Cazorla was already an international when we bought him.Perhaps it’s because they were both the same age and are Spanish.I thought it was a lot more than 10 mill. So what…
i just read that graham hunter a la liga expert /pundit said that barca while looking for a 4th striker were looking to sign him but were told that he had already agreed terms with arsenal and that the deal was going to happen so went for a player called something like pacca i don,t know!1
I hope Perez succeeds and scores lots of goals
On 1st Sept, he will have my FULL support if we sign him
However, yes he is a panic buy, like Welbeck
Perez is 27 and has had only 1 good season
All foreign players are risks but Perez is a huge one
Wenger should be ashamed of himself
He had the whole summer to get a Top forward
Even Spurs got Janssen for £19 million
United got Mkthiaryan for £26 million
Why is it that United, City, Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool ALL got forwards before the season started but Wenger couldn’t
Wenger just made a half-hearted attempt
Wenger didn’t even call Vardy. Vardy said Wenger didn’t even contact him
Wenger has truly become a Pathetic Manager
If we don’t win the PL or come really close, we will lose BOTH Alexis and Ozil next summer
And only one man is to blame: Wenger
I can’t believe either when the manager says they are busy 24/7 in the transfer market, only to come with excuses of no one is available and if anyone comes up we will sign (if you are searching 24 hours a day and still can’t find one, why you saying if anyone comes up? from where? Mars? or the Moon?)
waiting for last minute buys make the selling club to not have enough time to buy replacements, after more than 20 years as a manager one would think this old man is experienced in such matters but alas, excuses after excuses just to justify the failure to buy
Anyways, Mustafi and Perez could be just what we’ve been missing
janssen is the puzzling one to me at 20 mill
5 years younger than perez, already showed he can score in many different ways . had a decent season
3 mill more thats it!
im of the belief wenger was focused on vardy/lacazette , if he wasnt he would have got janssen
– a real shame
perez is welcome here but he really does look a panic buy
I’ll blame you personally…
Just don’t get excited about the media BS next time.
I can’t recall Wenger admitting he’s made Vardy a target… nor Lacazette…
I’ll believe Lucas is coming when I see that on arsenal.com. He looks aggressive on youtube, hopefully a good signing. Imagine Lucas and Sanchez both running tirelessly and harassing opponent’s defense 🙂
Let’s get behind our team!
this a pure good panic pinching buy… but we hope something good will come out of ….
i still wait for the day AW leaves arsenal.
Like I will always say Wenger is unpredictable…. he says things at times then does the opposite.
Seems like Wenger had Just 20M pounds for a striker this summer. It didn’t work out with Vardy hence we got someone that foot the bill.
Yes, a panic buy but hopefully it will be a good panic buy after all..
Tempted to say welcome Perez but I have to wait until I see it on arsenal website..
Giroud with beards vs Giroud without, which is better…he needs to be shipped to Turkey asap…
lol
With… Giroud will score 20 this season.
Perez is probably a panic buy, but I believe he is going to come good for us. Mustafi and Koscielny’s partnership will be a force to reckon with. If the team gels quickly I feel we can compete well with the big boys.
Here is my team for an injury free Arsenal first eleven.
Cech
Bellerin Mustafi Koscielny Monreal
Xhaka Cazorla
Ozil
Alexis Perez Iwobi/Chamberlain.
Wenger, make Arsenal great again.
That’s a good lookin’ team right there… Still think Giroud will be starting at striker and with a bit of pressure on I think he’ll perform.
When do we not panic buy?. It seems like the board has a template of transfer policy in which first they buy a quality player like cech was last summer and alexis was before that and now it’s xhaka.They just give you enough so that the guys who are season ticket holders would renew their tickets.Then the Dilly dallying begins we show as if we are going for top players and make cheap offers for them so the selling club would not sell them and they could say hey! atleast we tried. Wenger’s top top quality is chamak giroud,squillaci,mertesacker.I used to think that Arsene Wenger was handicapped because of stadium debts but it seems like even if we had money and the top player is available he won’t bid for them as he would be afraid to spend huge money on players. He rather takes an easy route of looking for cheap players and failing with them rather than buying real top players and succeeding.Its just his philosophy about winning title without spending huge money which has cost us dearly for the past four years. Top players don’t come cheap these days we should have gone for aubameyang last summer imo now he is one of the top Two strikers other being lewandowski.These players may cost 100 million each now. We needed to take a gamble on lacazette what if he has a phenomenal season and his value goes even higher.Anyways i am not a real arsenal fan who spend their money on season ticket or buy their merchandise so i should shut up.
It makes me sad to see people ignorantly having the stereotype that inexpensive players are not world class. So according to your poor logic, players such as; Payet, Koscielny, Carzola, Vardy, Mahrez, Ibrahimovic, Coquelin, sissoko etc, that were acquired cheaply are of poor quality?
perez has balls coming here …
are fans are in disarray , he would have known about the flack giroud gets, the anger geared at wenger for not spending…
fair play to him
alotta pressure coming his way
We need better though but I’m in full 100% support of the purchase of Shkrodan Mustafi and Lucas Perez.Mustafi can help Koscielny now.I’ve been saying it here time and time again that it’s not a world clsss striker we have needed but a clinical finisher which we have lacked for several seasons and counting.Hopefully this guy puts Giroud where he belongs which is on the bench.Though a world class striker is good what we have lacked is someone who puts the game to bed in clinical fashion but Arsene Wenger has listened to many people to the extent that if he can’t get a world class striker then he can get anyone.If Arsenal had a clinical finisher for some five seasons or so we coulda won the EPL then.Giroud has cost us matches and will continue to cost us matches.Giroud is half decent as someone said here the last time.I expect Perez to be much better if he can take on his man and be clinical in front of goal.
David Ornstein “Arsenal agree £35m deal with Valencia for Mustafi. Will fly to London for medical, seal terms on 5yr contract. Perez medical also today #AFC” 5 mins ago..
Tears of joy… ;D
some of the memes being thrown at this twitter status are jokes..
arsenal fans are pleased
Henry signed for Arsenal 17 years ago.
It’s fair to say that Arsenal has come
no where near signing someone
of his caliber since.
Ever since Wenger has courted but
never broken the bank for a top striker.
Every summer there is talk of a big striker (if one becomes available)
but he ultimately settles for much cheap far inferior options.
Bendtner Adebayor Eduardo Vela Park Girvinho Sanogo Chamakh
Giroud Podolski Asano Wellbeck and now Perez.
But why? A man who spends every waking hour studying football
a man said to have an eye for talent and yet
he has not spotted another top striker this century.
It’s as if Wenger decided that a top striker was an encumbrance.
May be a striker is not essential to make top 4?
But what about winning the title?
To be fair, all of those strikers bar Giroud contended with RVP. RVP was our top striker, your talking like they were our starting choices, and always when you go down the pecking order the quality too goes down. Eduardo was a great shout for second choice striker, wouldn’t mind a fit Eduardo now to be honest. Unlucky with that horror leg break. Adebeyor too was a terrific player at the time, his goals and assists came close to Henry’s numbers just before he left for city. Seriously dude, if you’re gonna do it at least do it right.
To clear it up about Lucas Perez being a panic buy, the Leicester Scout who put Kante, Vardy and Mahrez in the club recommended Luca Perez to Everton.
This is why Arsenal has swooped for this player who is another “Vardy” and who is actually cheaper than what Vardy’s price was.
Not a Panic Buy, just a player who was not higher up the wanted list. With preferred players to much of a risk before the window closes we turned to the plan B players. With Everton going in for Perez, it simply forced Arsenal to act fast after already having had an offer turned down (the payment in installments offer).
He is a good player, at his peak, the finished article and exactly the same as what Vardy would bring to the team. The bonus is Perez will be getting much more service than Vardy at Leicester.
With Mustafi partnered with Koscielny, Xhaka in midfield and Perez up front I believe we can actually have hope this season, especially if Santi stays fit and Iwobi gets back in the side. Having Cech, Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Elneny and Xhaka as a barrier in front of our goal should be solid.
We gain Mustafi but lose Mertesacker
so no improvement at CB
because Mustafi is not as good
as Mertz at his peak.
Xhaka is no more effective
defensively than Coquelin but adds depth.
65 mill to slightly improve in defense.
Was it worth it?
Perez another Wellbeck, Chamak Park Sanogo or Girvinho.
Have we improved enough to win the title.
I think not.
Far out mate… You could twist Sanogo into being better than Messi if you wanted.
I know you revel in the glass half empty dogma and are adept at snappy posts but you are way off beam here. Mustafi V Mertesacker – conjecture, projection and completely unfounded hypothesis. And we haven’t “lost” Mertesacker yet. And, whilst I love FC, if you cannot see that GX is at least twice the raw footballing talent than FC than you are watching the wrong game my friend. I’ll give you a pass on Perez but you haven’t any more of clue than anyone else as to how that will go. Let him kick a ball for us before writing him off.
There’s been a few really good articles on just how poor Deportivo were on paper (defensively, as a unit good though) and how much Perez carried them…
Also scored a massive goal against Barcelona for them to secure promotion two seasons ago, and scored and assisted a goal against them this season. Seems to turn it on vs the big teams.
Oh god, I hate some of you.
Seriously….. WTF?
No pleasing some people.
all this moaning everyone is doing means absolutely nothing untill we give this guy a chance cause none of us know how well he will do for arsenal, he could be the missing link or a flop, so everyone’s comments (even mine) are irrelevant until we give him a chance to see how he does for us
COYG
“panic buy”is just a stupid expression that has been ingrained into people,s mind by newspapers that love cliches,so any club that buys a player in the last week is panic buying??there is a good reason that most business is done in the last few days,like clubs pressured to sell players,first target didn,t go through for different reasons…..how funny when we buy a player in the last week it,s a panic buy but none of the other clubs are accused of doing the same,how come??
The Ornacle has spoken…..
Where are all the ‘Wenger’s done in the transfer market’ sheep at?
Once again the media and fans getting carried away!
Arsenal scouted him multiple times last season. That is confirmed. Arsenal were scouting him before the Leicester guy now at Everton was. Not really a panic buy from what I can see.
The Mustafi signing makes me laugh. Wenger takes it from all sides with people saying this is the market, you must overpay, before the usual blah blah. Then we look to be overpaying for a CB, and these people take a swipe at him for overpaying. He really cant win with some people, damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.
I don’t know about others, but Arsene spending over 30m for a CB as well as a DM, this is a different Arsene to the one that I remember. If Mustafi is the right guy to partner Kos, well then this is a terrific signing. The Xhaka signing looks to be a great signing too, this is two positions we had allot of trouble with over the years. The striker does look to be more of a stop gap, but the best ones just aren’t available. All in all you would have to say it’s a good window, if the striker surprises, well then it could be a very good window.
I thought I would come on here to see the “panic buy” merchants out in force. Wenger gets a lot of things wrong and has split the fan-base. But let us get real here – if you are in the anti-Wenger camp there is nothing the guy can do to please some. He buys big early before anyone else (Xhaka) and some people disregard this and conveniently forget about it. He buys a young prospect and it is not what we need at the moment. He buys someone in their prime years and he is past it. He buys late in the window and it is a panic buy. He buys no-one and he is a war criminal. It appears the only sub-set of players he can buy without fear of fan repercussions are established superstars aged 23-25 for not less than say £50M. We didn’t manage to secure the signature of any of Europe’s top performing strikers and big names: eg: Lacazette, Greizman, Vardy, Lewandoski, Aguero, Suarez, Cavani, Benzema, Aubameyang, Muller, Ronaldo, Icardi, Reus, Kane, Costa – BUT nor did anyone else. They all stayed with their clubs. Despite appearances we are not the only club not to have bought a big name striker. Ibrahimovic at 34 was only ever going to one club. And Higuain, an Argentinian was always going to be more comfortable staying in Italy. And whilst AW gets slagged left, right and centre in the press there was a deathly silence when their flavour of month pet Klopp announces he can’t wait for the window to be closed and couldn’t understand why everyone was so obsessed with buying, buying, buying to the exclusion of all else.
No, Mr Wenger buys is not panic its credulous. Walcott can play in an identical fashion to Vardy plus he have Welbeck who will be back hopefully after christmas who could do what Vardy does. Despite both Walcott and Welbeck being better and younger than Vardy, Mr Wenger was prepared to spent 22 million on him simply because he scored 24 league goals not taking into consideration what he already have and the style of football Arsenal plays.
Vardy said it was an easy decision for him, he did not believe he was a very good fit at Arsenal base on what Mr Wenger already has plus his age and Arsenal style of play. As a manager I expect Mr Wenger to see these things his gullible mentality is starting to worry me.
Panic buy or not he certainly has potential and gives us something different. There is no guarantee that someone like Lacazzete would of worked out either.
He gives us something different, another option. He certainly looks quite direct and a bit tricky.
Couple that with Mustafi and Kos partnership and all the others we have at the back and midfield and we look pretty solid.
Regardless of what we feel about AW and the board we must get behind this team, win lose or draw! This is our team – it is our job to get behind them.
So let’s stop the whining, the bickering and get behind them. Make them feel wanted and supported and ffs those of us that go to the emirates shout and get behind the team.
Come on you Gooners!!!!!!
He plays in Spain ? If he was any good someone would have got him. The leage in Spain is very poor even I could score
Kuntstantine this is the most negative and ungrateful article I’ve read on online. You’re referring to Perez as a panic buy and saying we are trying to rescue our transfer window. WTF? Both Mustafi and Perez are good players that will strengthen our team. What more do you want. If those signings come through which they should this will be our most successful transfer window as we would have spent around 100 million covering the areas we needed to strengthen. Have I missed something here.
You’re complaining about us hijacking Everton’s targets and questioning if we have scouts of our own, whilst complaining how shambolic the start to our season was. We’re 2 games in FFS.
You say we weren’t able to law away Vardy when Chelsea were able to attract Kante. You need to chill. If Chelsea had signed Vardy after he snubbed us you would have a good argument but you’re talking about 2 different players. Chelsea went for Kante and we went for Vardy. Whose to say Kante wouldn’t have come to us if we came knocking and Vardy would have just as well of snubbed Chelsea if they had tried to sign him.
You moan about how players rejected us. What players? Vardy is one dude who wanted to stay at his club the same way Shearer chose to stay at his. I don’t think it has anything to do with us not being able to attract players or him not rating us. Leicester haven’t beat us since 1995. They fear us because we are their bogey team.
Some say Arsenal have the most ungrateful fans but some of the writers are worse. This is the most negative comment I’ve read on here this week. It’s so pessimistic even Piers Morgan would of said chill!