Wenger admits Vardy scuppered Arsenal summer transfer plans

Some Arsenal fans have been less than impressed by the news that Arsene Wenger is on the verge of completing the deal to bring the Spanish forward Lucas Perez to north London from his La Liga club Deportivo La Coruna, with many Gooners and members of the football press suggesting that this is a panic buy from the boss in response to his failure to get the right player earlier in the transfer window.

Wenger has moved quickly to deny this, but he did admit that at least part of it was right, namely that his transfer plans had to change after the Leicester City and England striker Jamie Vardy turned down the chance of playing for the Gunners.

As reported by the Evening Standard, the boss had clearly expected this deal to go through without any problems, so when it didn’t the whole complexion of our summer transfer plans had to change.

Wenger said, “This season I thought we had the most easy transfer window ever because we knew what we wanted and who we wanted and it didn’t come off, so you have to restart.

“When you restart, when you handle some leagues they are [on] holiday, there was the European Championships and nothing happened, you couldn’t find anybody.”

Rather than the general idea of him dithering, however, our manager suggested that he had a very clear idea of what he wanted and it seems like he may have finally got it as he was quick to accept the comparison between Vardy and Lucas Perez. While a lot of people questioned whether the Leicester star was the right type of forward for Arsenal, it seems like he was exactly what Wenger was after and perhaps the delay in signing a striker was down to him finding one who could do a similar job for us as Vardy would have.

When asked about the similarities between the players Wenger replied, “Yes, I like that one.”

And he explained further, “He is a late developer, he played in a different position. He moved centrally in a successful way.

“I think he has good link-up qualities, good finishing qualities. Let’s see if we can finish the job.”

So can Arsenal fans understand why Wenger took so long to sign a striker after the snub from Vardy?

Bob.

Tags Lucas Perez

14 Comments

  1. Putting all your eggs in one basket this is. Always a plan A specialist, when things shake a bit, he goes missing and brings up tons of excuses.. Of all the strikers in the world, Wenger only saw the 29 yrs old English international (if not for the EPL title we wouldn’t have called him that) and he ticks all the Wenger’s 4 boxes

    Still, Perez is better than no one at all, good business

    1. It is not that easy when you got constraint of the transfer budget (reported to be around 96M including agent fee, bonus and first year wage)
      Base on rumours early in the transfer market, here are who we after
      – Xhaka (35M)
      – Vardy (20M)
      – Ricardo Rodriguez (25M)
      – An experienced CB (20M)
      Vardy rejection practically spoil our transfer plan on LB and CB as we prioritise a Striker first. With around 50-60M left it is not easy to get a marquee striker in this crazy market.
      We offered 50M + Giroud for Higuain but got rejected. Wenger play patient game to drive down the price for Lacazette who he does not believe worth 40-50M as he still want to strengthen our CB position.
      The injury to 2 of our experienced CB practically make CB a more pressing position than ST, so in the end we settle with Plan A for our CB (Mustafi) and Plan C for our ST (Perez).
      It’s better later than never, I personally think this transfer window is a success (given the constraint of the budget), as we managed to strengthen our spine with Mustafi – Xhaka – Perez. We added new skill set to our weaponry with Xhaka long pass and Perez pace and trickery upfront, also we now have two strong pacy defenders so can affort to play a higher defensive line when need be. It will be an interesting season for us

  2. Forgiven already, better late than NOT.
    It seems like Rob Holding is the next Bellerin, H,ello Mustafi? Welcome but you won’t have it easy.

    It also look like theo means business after all.

    1. Mustafi, Koscielny and Holding will be in for a battle who will start – Chambers will probably go on loan.

      Gabriel should be the 4th choice, he will be back soon to cover.

      Mertesacker, I guess we can already start counting the months when he will play his last match for us…

    2. Theo has always been one of the best RIGHT WINGERS in the league, if you looked at the stats. Then he decided to switch to striker. Welcome back Theo!

  3. I think all the news that AW was trying for this one and that one was a deterrent because he was trying to keep the cost down on the players. He’s far from stupid but all fans keeper jumping the gun. I still think we have another one coming next week just like he did with Ozill. Our back line looks good now with GP coming back. Thing is I hope he don’t drop TW because he had another good game and his confidence will keep building. Play the new CF not keep him on the bench. He’s fast and with TW all about speed and HB flying down the wing I think it looks good but I would like to see a 442

    1. With theo we have been here before, looking good then gets injured. I cannot see wenger selling him as we do not know how perez will fit in and perform.

    2. Looking good … Jesus… Watch hazard or William destabilize defences and score from angles …that’s looking good …Walcott put in a couple of decent crosses but rarely went past their defence and the couple of scoring chances he had were fluffed… Perez should walk in to starting line up …

  4. Now to a hypothetical question, if we signed James Rodriguez where will he play? Will you be happy with his signing? Drop your comments 🙂

    1. I was thinking today how packed this midfield will be when ramsey returns. James Rodriguez is a luxury we simply do not need.

      Left back will need a reinforcement next season as Monreal is nearing his twilight, and despite us spending almost 100 million this transfer market, all evidence says it will not happen two seasons in a row.

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