There are reports everywhere saying that the Deportivo striker Lucas Perez will be signing for Arsenal imminently. This is how The Mirror reported it this morning:
Arsenal are set to sign Deportivo’s Lucas Perez in a bid to end their striker crisis, according to El Confidential.
The Gunners are poised to complete a £17million move after reportedly hijacking Everton’s attempts to sign the 27-year-old.
Ronald Koeman’s men were the favourites to land Perez but the report claims that a late “surprise” bid from the Gunners came in at the last second.
Well, Lucas might not be Gonzalo Higuain, but he did score 18 goals in 37 games for lowly Deportivo last season, which is not a bad return, but that was his best stats for many a year. Maybe he was late maturing?
Although Lucas was actually born in Coruña, he started his professional career at Atletico Madrid’s C team where he scored 18 goals in 55 games over two seasons, before being moved on to Rayo Vallecano’s B Team. In the next two seasons he scored 25 times for the B side and once for the A team in 7 games.
Then in 2011 he inexplicably moved to the Ukrainian Premier League team FC Karpaty Lviv. Again in two seasons he scored only 14 goals in 51 games, and then was shunted off to Greece to play for PAOK, where he only lasted one season, scoring 9 goals, before being sent on loan to his hometown of La Coruña.
He had a quiet first season, only scoring 6 in 21 matches before hitting top form last season. He has hardly had a glittering career, but he is certainly well-travelled and hopefully (for our sake as well as Wenger’s) will settle quickly and carry on his excellent form in the Premiership.
Anyway you can decide for yourself whether you think he will make it at Arsenal. Here is a video showing all his goals and assists for Deportivo last season.
Enjoy!