Who is Lucas Perez? Everything you need to know about Arsenal's new signing

As Arsenal fans will have already worked out, Lucas Perez is not one of Europe’s top 10 strikers; this doesn’t make up for not getting Luis Suarez, Karim Benzema or Gonazo Higuain in recent seasons.

But there are some reasons to be cheerful about someone a lot of commentators would like to see in Julen Lopetegui’s first Spain squad today.

This is not a ‘jam tomorrow’ signing. Perez has been around the block – quite a big block that took in Karpaty Lviv in the Ukraine and PAOK Salonica in Greece – and he knows this is his time. That will be part of the reason why he has left his home town. He’s been an unashamed badge-kisser at Riazor in the last couple of seasons. "I’ll never kiss another one, no matter what club I’m at," and "I want to live here for the rest of my life," are things he has said in the last 12 months. It was a struggle to fulfil his dream of playing for the team he grew up supporting and he is cutting it short after just two campaigns. But he’s doing it because this is his big chance to go from decent striker to exceptional striker.

He’s not going to get Jose Antonio Reyes homesick. He left Ukraine, still owed money but glad to have got away, and described the last four months there as the "worst" of his life but he still managed to hack it for two years in total. Arsenal will be a walk in Hyde Park compared to that. He has always been a tough kid – brought up in Coruña by his grandparents because his father was away at sea.

Okay so he’s not the aforementioned Suarez, Higuain or Benzema but then neither has he cost the huge sums they would have. And in terms of quality he’s in the same ball-park as the other targets this summer: Jamie Vardy and Alexandre Lacazette. In fact there is definitely something of Vardy about him: he is busy, quick and aggressive. Last season he played up top in Depor’s 4-2-3-1 and it was a hard grind, but he coped well and scored 17 goals. He’s skilful and intelligent and has a great left foot.

If you like your club to sign players who love the game and are not just in it because in any other racket they would never be able to afford to get the windows blacked-up on their Bentley Continental GT, then Perez is that. A real fan – a Futbolero – since he was a kid when he used to have posters of Bebeto on his wall. And his real hero was Fran Gonzaléz, the captain who was at Depor for 17 years.

He scored at the Camp Nou the season before last on the final weekend of the campaign in a 2-2 draw that kept Deportivo up. He made the most of it the following season to beat a club record by scoring in seven straight league games – and ending up with 17 of the team’s 45 goals scored.

Not just that he should be given a chance to play for Spain – there is a striker dilemma while they work out who from Paco Alcacer, Borja Baston, Perez and Nolito should be on Alvaro Morata’s heels. But there are also rumblings at Barcelona that they should have taken a chance on Perez to solve their striker crisis. Of course Barcelona’s striker ‘crisis’ is that despite scoring six last week and still with Neymar to come back they feel they need more strength in depth. Arsenal’s needs are more pressing. But pressing is something else Perez will do. He’s hungry to grab his chance. He’s not Suarez but it won’t be the worst business Wenger has ever done.