Lucas Perez completes £17.1m move to Arsenal from Deportivo
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Updated 30/08/2016 at 14:53 GMT
Arsenal have confirmed the £17.1m signing of Spanish forward Lucas Perez from Deportivo La Coruna.
Deportivo La Coruna's midfielder Lucas Perez celebrates a goal during the Spanish league football match RC Deportivo de la Coruna vs Sevilla FC at the Municipal de Riazor stadium in La Coruna on December 5, 2015
Image credit: AFP
The 27-year-old scored 19 goals last season, including 17 in La Liga, while he also struck in Deportivo's opening game of this campaign, against Eibar.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger told the club's website: “He’s not only a goalscorer, he’s a guy who combines well with partners, who can give a final ball and makes good runs. He’s got a good eye for goal and had an outstanding season last year.”
Arsenal failed with a bid for Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy prior to Euro 2016 and were also in the market for Lyon's Alexandre Lacazette before being put off by his price tag.
Perez can also play on the wing so is not a conventional solution to the club's centre-forward problem but should provide competition with Olivier Giroud.
Arsenal are also on the brink of signing Valencia defender Shkodran Mustafi for a fee in the region of £35m.
Who is Lucas Perez?
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Lucas Perez, left, celebrates a goal for Deportivo
Image credit: Eurosport
A virtual unknown just a week ago in England, Perez is now at one of the most famous clubs in the country - but what can Arsenal expect from their new signing?
Our La Liga expert Pete Jenson had this comprehensive preview of the forward last week.
A panic buy?
The signing of Perez has some uncomfortable echoes, wrote Tom Adams for this website recently...
Deportivo La Coruna have an unlikely track record of supplying forwards to English teams in desperate straits. So much so that two Depor alumni figure prominently in lists of the Premier League’s worst ever panic buys. An important caveat is that both of the players sold right at the end of their respective transfer windows – Albert Luque for £10m in 2005 and Xisco for £6m in 2008 – went to Newcastle United, a club which has rarely been considered a beacon of good planning and management.
"Given such a context it is understandable that Arsenal’s imminent £17m signing of Lucas Perez from Deportivo is being viewed with suspicion. Particularly when it emerges that Arsenal had previously concluded Perez was not of the required standard."
Read the full piece here.
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