Panic buy fears well grounded as Arsenal close on £17m Lucas Perez

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.

Xisco scored once in 11 appearances in English football but Newcastle had to shoulder his wages for the full five years of his contract – albeit with the assistance of four loan spells, two of which were back at Depor. Luque spent only two seasons on Tyneside but it was a similar story: one league goal in 21 games before he was sold to Ajax at a great loss.

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.

“Arsenal had watched Perez at length last season, as he scored 17 La Liga goals for Deportivo, the best season of his career,” writes Jack Pitt-Brooke in the Independent on Friday morning. “But Arsenal were initially reluctant to spend money on a player who some at the club doubted was up to the level of competing in the Champions League and for the Premier League title.”

The panic element of this purchase is not in a lack of due diligence. Arsenal have not spirited up his name from the ether with no idea what they are getting themselves into. The panic element is in the fact that said due diligence had already indicated Perez was not a top-level striker, yet working through their increasingly small list of targets he appears to be the only one available.

Jamie Vardy was Plan A before deciding to stay with Leicester City prior to the start of Euro 2016. Lyon's Alexandre Lacazette seemed to be Plan B before Arsenal were priced out of a move for a player who was rumoured to be costing almost £47 million.

Comparisons with the former appear to be sticking, and not only because Perez scored in seven games in succession last season to equal a Depor club record set by Bebeto. He thrives on the counter-attack when given space to run into behind a defence and, according to our own Pete Jenson, “there is definitely something of Vardy about him: he is busy, quick and aggressive.”

It is also a fitting comparison because 2015-16 was the clear outlier in his career. After coming through at Rayo Vallecano and following spells with Karpaty and Dynamo Kiev in Ukraine and PAOK in Greece before returning to Spain with hometown club Depor, last season Perez outscored his previous seasonal league record by a clear eight goals.

The 27-year-old’s unimpressive track record, combined with the fact that Everton were in for him before Arsenal swooped, does not suggest Perez is the world class forward Wenger needs, or even an improvement on Olivier Giroud. Past performance is not always a reliable indicator of future excellence, but it is pretty handy.

A panic buy? If those reports are correct and Arsenal effectively ruled him out a few weeks ago then the label seems appropriate. Ultimately, though, how this transfer is viewed will depend on what Perez produces on the pitch. His predecessors at Depor have not set a high bar.