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Wenger confirms move after player completes Arsenal medical

By on August 27, 2016

According to the Mirror, Arsene Wenger has confirmed Arsenal’s move for Lucas Perez after the striker completed his medical ahead of his £17m switch from Deportivo La Coruna.

After scouring the market for strikers, we finally made our move for Lucas on Wednesday night,  hijacking Everton’s deal for the Spanish striker after agreeing to meet his £17m buyout clause.

The Mirror claim the 27-year-old flew-in to London on Thursday night and will now sign a four-year deal after completing his medical at London Colney on Friday afternoon.

The deal is expected to be formally announced over the weekend but Wenger has been speaking about why he’s decided to sign Lucas after watching the Deportivo hitman over the past 12 months.

Arsene explained that Perez is a late developer, having only really started to make an impact as a striker over the past couple of seasons having previously played as a winger,  but the boss thinks he has plenty of qualities to bring to Arsenal.

Wenger is quoted as saying by the Mirror:

“Perez 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 quality of receptions, good finishing qualities. Let’s see if we can finish the job.”

Perez scored 19 goals and provided 11 assists in all competitions last season – which is an excellent return in a team that was fighting relegation – but the boss has been accused by some corners of the media of ‘panic buying’ – something he strongly denies.

When quized about the subject, Arsene said:

“Look at my face, is it the face of somebody who does a panic buy? No. I try to make the decision.” [source: Mirror]

I honestly don’t think Perez is a ‘panic buy’. We’ve scouted the player for months. Yes, we may have turned down the chance to sign him in July but that’s because we were still hoping to sign a marquee striker.

Now that we’ve been unable to land someone like Griezmann or Lewandowski, Arsene has understandably moved on to Plan B – which is Perez. That’s not panic buying, that’s accepting you can’t sign your ambitious prime target and moving on to another carefully considered option.

Let’s be honest, Perez isn’t a ‘big name’ but he’s basically the Spanish version of Jamie Vardy. A late developer who’s only really had one excellent season in top flight football. Had we signed Vardy for around £20m [slightly more than Perez] the media and some fans would have hailed it as a great signing.

So why all the hate for Perez? Because he’s not English and we don’t know that much about him? Let’s give the lad a chance before writing him off….