I don't think he played as a striker in that game though. Maybe we're going to use him on the wing?

he's got a diet suarez look about him. suarez is a striker, but played on the wing a fair bit in holland and even for liverpool because he was a good creator/dribbler. hopefully he's earmarked to play through the middle for us, if we do get him

Sounds like value for money.

Low double digit return on goals and an economical scrape into the top four.

At least he's six odd feet tall.

Five feet eleven and a half to be precise.

Nice piece here on him from Sid Lowe in The Guardian last December - https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/dec/21/lucas-perez-deportivo-de-la-coruna-bebeto-record

Sounds like he's a humble hard working team player. The only reservation from reading that is that he may also be a little bit Jose Antonio Reyes and get homesick. He is 28 next month though and hopefully will be more mature and adjusted than Reyes was.

I can learn to like this.

Get it done Wenger

Classic Wenger. Spend the window dithering and failing to seriously pursue top quality players, and then have to settle for some budget option that none of us bave heard of.

Claudius wrote:

Cool. We are getting the Spanish Defoe.

A 27yr old Defoe wouldn't be such a bad addition to be fair.

This guy has had a pretty underwhelming career to say the least though, 28 next month too

Not sure I believe this but I'd still take him, at this stage I'd take anyone. A striker of this pedigree would be complemented by a top class forward (James?) in the ideal world.

I heard that he is the Spanish DJ Campbell though.

We're gonna need to take a punt on a late bloomer or youth prospect. There are no top strikers moving bar a fat higgy for 70-80m.

Benteke would've been better than this guy.

Hopefully he's better than place level.

A bit meh but I suppose this is as good as we can realistically get. Glad that it's not a youth prospect but an experienced player we're taking a punt on so that he can provide proper competition for Giroud over the course of the season.

Gunner89 wrote:

Benteke would've been better than this guy.

Sure. One donkey in Giroud isn't enough, let's sign another.

As Wenger would say "I'm sorry he didn't cost 50M". Seems like prices really influence people's opinion on players. Dickheads like Benteke and Lukaku are wanted when they cost shitloads of money even though they truly are woeful footballers.

Haven't seen this guy play, only heard of him since we were linked last winter. His profile looks good though, interesting player.

I would have thought Benteke failing miserably at a higher level would have opened people's eyes but apparently not.

If he can even remotely reproduce the form he had early last season we'll have found our Suárez, and I genuinely don't think you'd have to add a "light" to his name. He was unplayable for a couple months, much like Suárez was for Pool but I also see similarities to Diego Costa when he was at Atlético in that he often was the only player in the opposite half and still managed to score goals out of very little.

Intelligent on the pitch, incredible work rate, deadly in front of goal when he's in form. His form waned a bit in the second half but he still had a good return for a team that spends most of the season fighting relegation. If he can torture defences like Atlético's or Barcelona's then he wouldn't have too many troubles translating it to the EPL. Seriously, just watch some of the goals he scored last season, I'd genuinely rather pay 90m for this guy than 30m for Benteke.

The fact that he has a high number of assists too along with the goals speaks about him as a player. I haven't seen him but he obviously has vision and awareness too. I am sure his technique is solid. We have followed him obviously, we were linked in December. He was way down in our list but with our top options not working out and Everton agreeing a deal with Deportivo for him it's fine that we have swooped in rather than lose out.

Age doesn't really matter. Who had heard much of Robert Pires before he joined us at 26/ 27.

It's very different now with scouting very strong across clubs but he won't be the first late bloomer. People were going crazy about Payet not very long ago.

I remember Deportivo needed a draw to avoid relegation at the end of the 14/15 season and their last game was against Barca who didn't need anything from the match as La Liga was already won...

So Barca go 2-0 up and Lucaz Perez starts talking to all the Barca players begging them not to score and to give them a chance. He begged Messi to put aside his pride for Deportivo just once... Says please to Neymar... Talks to Mascherano during a break in play.

Deportivo scored twice and they stay up. Lucas Perez scores the first and as he runs back to his half he says Por Favor to Messi... Which is thank you. Says thank you post game to some other players too.

No way you could prove Barca players followed what he said but it is pure emotion with Perez.

Suddenly the Joel Campbell loan makes more sense.

We need numbers just as much as we need quality. As long as Perez isn't more of the same, he'll be useful (on paper).

Savz wrote:

I remember Deportivo needed a draw to avoid relegation at the end of the 14/15 season and their last game was against Barca who didn't need anything from the match as La Liga was alreadg won...  

So Barca go 2-0 up and Lucaz Perez starts talking to all the Barca players begging them not to score and to give them a chance. He begged Messi to put aside his pride for Deportivo just once...  Says please to Neymar... Talks to Mascherano during a break in play.

Deportivo scored twice and they stay up.  Lucas Perez scores the first and as he runs back to his half he says Por Favor to Messi... Which is thank you. Says thank you post game to some other players too.

No way you could prove Barca players followed what he said but it is pure emotion with Perez.

Could have used him at the Swansea game last season... 'just let us win you cunts this game means nothing to you'

It's basically done then. They don't tell Cross anything unless it's virtually done.

Time to trawl through Youtube compilations!

Has a sweet TOTS card. That's about all I know about him.

Ornstein has confirmed!

David Ornstein@bbcsport_david
Arsenal interested in signing Deportivo La Coruna CF Lucas Perez. Not done deal but #AFC in contention - 27yo, 17 gls in 37 apps last season

He is afforded far too much space in Spain. His compilation shows some really good qualities but ultimately we play very differently and the League is very different. If he can be a support for Giroud in his first year it will be quite awesome.

evoh_1 wrote:

17'goals and 8 assists seems an OK return for a guy playing for deportivo.

17 goals and 10 assists, the same return as POTY Riyad Mahrez playing for the equivalent of a team like West Brom or Sunderland and in a better league. "OK return" is a slight understatement

goon wrote:

Savz wrote:

I remember Deportivo needed a draw to avoid relegation at the end of the 14/15 season and their last game was against Barca who didn't need anything from the match as La Liga was alreadg won...  

So Barca go 2-0 up and Lucaz Perez starts talking to all the Barca players begging them not to score and to give them a chance. He begged Messi to put aside his pride for Deportivo just once...  Says please to Neymar... Talks to Mascherano during a break in play.

Deportivo scored twice and they stay up.  Lucas Perez scores the first and as he runs back to his half he says Por Favor to Messi... Which is thank you. Says thank you post game to some other players too.

No way you could prove Barca players followed what he said but it is pure emotion with Perez.

Could have used him at the Swansea game last season... 'just let us win you cunts this game means nothing to you'

I'm unsure why you mentioned the Swansea game specifically?

Rohit wrote:

He is afforded far too much space in Spain. His compilation shows some really good qualities but ultimately we play very differently and the League is very different. If he can be a support for Giroud in his first year it will be quite awesome.

He's playing for relegation battlers Depor, of course he'll find himself in space. Look at how much space fucking PL winner Vardy found himself in time and time again last season, if he can do well there's little reason Lucas shouldn't be able to

Would he be able to play as an out and out striker or will he play on the right?

Savz wrote:

goon wrote:

Could have used him at the Swansea game last season... 'just let us win you cunts this game means nothing to you'

I'm unsure why you mentioned the Swansea game specifically?

Don't want to veer off topic but mainly because that was the game where I pretty much gave up on the title, and possibly because I was there.

jones wrote:

Rohit wrote:

He is afforded far too much space in Spain. His compilation shows some really good qualities but ultimately we play very differently and the League is very different. If he can be a support for Giroud in his first year it will be quite awesome.

He's playing for relegation battlers Depor, of course he'll find himself in space. Look at how much space fucking PL winner Vardy found himself in time and time again last season, if he can do well there's little reason Lucas shouldn't be able to

His finishing and movement looks quality but then at Arsenal he will not have as much space in behind. The compilation I saw of last season only showed goals and assists, if you have seen him in matches perhaps it will be helpful if you could shed some light on other aspects of his game - if he can cope with physicality of the League, can he play with his back to goal?

He could turn out to be another Pires/ Payet, or he could be our very own Soldado. I would rather we signed him than no one. Wenger is desperate and hopefully he turns out to be what we need.

David Ornstein ‏@bbcsport_david 19m19 minutes ago
Estimate by @AST_arsenal was £96m for signings. After Xhaka/Holding/Asano/Kalechi & £40+m CB (Mustafi 1st choice), not much left for CF #AFC

Absolute joke

That is almost as ridiculous as having to feed 600 employees when we are forced to include Asano and Kalechi in the reckoning to explain to fans that we have no money left

40m plus pound CB?

Nonsense.

Clrnc wrote:

David Ornstein ‏@bbcsport_david 19m19 minutes ago
Estimate by @AST_arsenal was £96m for signings. After Xhaka/Holding/Asano/Kalechi & £40+m CB (Mustafi 1st choice), not much left for CF #AFC

Absolute joke

That is almost as ridiculous as having to feed 600 employees when we are forced to include Asano and Kalechi in the reckoning to explain to fans that we have no money left

I'll be impressed if we finish the window with Xhaka, Mustafi and Perez in the first place.

Oh and for Perez it'll be a joke if he signs for Everton given he'd have a striker in front of him there too.

Jeremy Wilson ‏@JWTelegraph 1m1 minute ago

Arsenal in talks to sign Deportivo striker Lucas Perez and Southampton have had £21m club record fee agreed with Lille for Sofiane Boufal

Wilson too now. Basically we have an Arsenal-journo trifecta with Cross, Ornstein and Wilson all confirming it. Its done.

Gunner89 wrote:

40m plus pound CB?

Nonsense.

Means we have the maximum of £40m budget left and that CB is planned. Not that we're signing a £40m CB.

Clrnc wrote:

David Ornstein ‏@bbcsport_david  19m19 minutes ago
Estimate by @AST_arsenal was £96m for signings. After Xhaka/Holding/Asano/Kalechi & £40+m CB (Mustafi 1st choice), not much left for CF #AFC

Absolute joke

That is almost as ridiculous as having to feed 600 employees when we are forced to include Asano and Kalechi in the reckoning to explain to fans that we have no money left

Spending 100m without any real outgoings would be pretty amazing by our standards to be fair. 40m+ on a centre back seems a bit odd though, guess the stories of Valencia demanding the full buyout are true.