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.