marv3llous wrote:

Well, im sure we can pay €20m in one go as well, didnt hurt to try and offer it in 2, though.

For a release clause to work I think you have to pay it all up front. No harm in asking them. But I guess if we're taking there star player this close to the window closing they'll probably want it all.

I've always wondered how that worked. You often read clubs have to reach an agreement over how to structure a deal after meeting the clause but you'd have assumed if the selling club don't want to sell they'd just insist it's all paid up top.

VillaverdeRCD #21 ‏@VillaverdeRCD 11m
La Voz de Galicia, is the most reliable source when it comes to DÉPOR news.
Well, they just confirmed LUCAS PÉREZ is an Arsenal player.

Looks like done deal.

What shirt numbers are available?

9 has been retired hopefully. Just say it's in honour of Francis Jeffers or something, he deserves it for kicking Neville.

jones wrote:

He's not unknown Claude. Everybody who followed La Liga last season knows about him.

Unknown is a strong word. Maybe a better way to frame it is that 

  • he's never been capped by his national team - which is not exactly blessed with number 9s 
  • this guy is 27, an age at which we rarely see a sudden jump in stats 

He isn't what I would have preferred. He will be useful in that with him now we will no longer see Sanchez and Walcott playing at 9, which could go a long way towards stablising and strengthening our team 

marv3llous wrote:

Welbeck is exactly in the same mould - a capable backup. Cant fault Wenger for that, really.

Shady wrote:

Controversial view around here, but I think Welbeck would be scoring at a decent rate for us if he had avoided the injuries.

Disagree with you both. Don't hate Welbeck in the slightest and consider him a handy player in some respects, but he's never been anywhere near prolific, and injury prone is injury prone. He was a very bad signing at the price we paid.

Yeah, this move is a DEFINITE improvement over our back-up options at centre forward. Earlier in the summer I had advocated that if Wenger does not get a hot shot centre forward, then he should bring in a great attacking midfielder and complement him with a striker of Perez's quality

Lacazette would've been a bad signing I reckon, I was keen on Vardy though.

If one of our young players somehow has a massive breakout season we might have a barely serviceable forward line.

Koscielny is following Deportivo on twitter. If that means anything at all.

Claudius wrote:
jones wrote:

He's not unknown Claude. Everybody who followed La Liga last season knows about him.

Unknown is a strong word. Maybe a better way to frame it is that 

  • he's never been capped by his national team - which is not exactly blessed with number 9s 
  • this guy is 27, an age at which we rarely see a sudden jump in stats 

He isn't what I would have preferred. He will be useful in that with him now we will no longer see Sanchez and Walcott playing at 9, which could go a long way towards stablising and strengthening our team 

You're not wrong Claud but ultimately your making your judgement based on his profile rather than him as a player.

Let's face it, not being capped by the Spanish NT over the past 10 years is hardly a crime.

Mirth wrote:
Claudius wrote:

Unknown is a strong word. Maybe a better way to frame it is that 

  • he's never been capped by his national team - which is not exactly blessed with number 9s 
  • this guy is 27, an age at which we rarely see a sudden jump in stats 

He isn't what I would have preferred. He will be useful in that with him now we will no longer see Sanchez and Walcott playing at 9, which could go a long way towards stablising and strengthening our team 

You're not wrong Claud but ultimately your making your judgement based on his profile rather than him as a player.

Let's face it, not being capped by the Spanish NT over the past 10 years is hardly a crime.

not being capped as a striker most definitely is a crime. looking forward to this. i watch about 80% of Real's games and 20% of each of Barca and Atletico's games each year, but don't recall this character. so i am blissfully ignorant and hoping for a pleasant surprise

Petter Veland reckons he will be a backup with potential to take Giroud's place.

Claudius wrote:
jones wrote:

He's not unknown Claude. Everybody who followed La Liga last season knows about him.

Unknown is a strong word. Maybe a better way to frame it is that 

  • he's never been capped by his national team - which is not exactly blessed with number 9s 
  • this guy is 27, an age at which we rarely see a sudden jump in stats 

He isn't what I would have preferred. He will be useful in that with him now we will no longer see Sanchez and Walcott playing at 9, which could go a long way towards stablising and strengthening our team 

If done, i'm hoping he is good to go in the first team and Wengs doesn't start his acclimatization bs of holding him back for months in the Carling Cup team.

Bold Tone wrote:
Claudius wrote:

Unknown is a strong word. Maybe a better way to frame it is that 

  • he's never been capped by his national team - which is not exactly blessed with number 9s 
  • this guy is 27, an age at which we rarely see a sudden jump in stats 

He isn't what I would have preferred. He will be useful in that with him now we will no longer see Sanchez and Walcott playing at 9, which could go a long way towards stablising and strengthening our team 

If done, i'm hoping he is good to go in the first team and Wengs doesn't start his acclimatization bs of holding him back for months in the Carling Cup team.

Won't happen. He's going to be 28!

looks like a done deal. cant see him him dislodging giroud straight away, perhaps he'll take theos rw spot at first

Wonder why this wasn't done earlier?

Surely we're not signing him only because Sanchez failed at CF in our first two games.

MistaT wrote:

Wonder why this wasn't done earlier?

Surely we're not signing him only because Sanchez failed at CF in our first two games.

Not our first choice/window closes next week.

MistaT wrote:

Wonder why this wasn't done earlier?

Surely we're not signing him only because Sanchez failed at CF in our first two games.

Because this guy isn't our first (and probably not second) choice.

Mirth wrote:
goon wrote:

Of course Ornstein is speculating, he's not exactly disguising it either.

Yep, he's even said this is from AST and not the club.

Yeah, it's particularly weird how speculating Ornstein is this summer. He just tweeted that Spurs is interested in Zaha and then quoted Zaha's agent for that info. Seems like he needs something to fall back from the abuses he gets when transfer fails.

I would be a lot happier if Perez signed early at the start of the window. Could have gotten us 5 more points at this stage. If we waited this long, one would expect us to be waiting for a top player nearing the end.

Captain wrote:
Ricky1985 wrote:

Watched a couple of videos and he reminds me of Griezmann in the way he plays. Looks really good value at £17m. I hope we still have something else lined up after we get this guy in though.

:saint:

Yep, I can't shake the feeling that we still have something big up our sleeves.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

Petter Veland reckons he will be a backup with potential to take Giroud's place.

This guy seems to know his stuff. Here he is in December saying Arsenal will Lucas Perez in Jan. 

To be fair I don't see Veland mentioning Arsenal there. He isn't a transfer guru, more of a football guru. Knows pretty much all there is to know about Spanish football.

Ricky1985 wrote:

https://moarfootball.com/2016/08/25/a-deportivo-la-coruna-fan-on-lucas-perez/

Bit more on him from a Depor fan.

Thanks Ricky, very interesting indeed!

So last season was the first time he played center forward. 

I am worried he may not be ready to start as lone striker in a League like this and will first start on the wing. Wenger's desire to bring Vardy in and now Lucas does point us trying for more directness and penetration.

Ornstein confirmed we have swooped in for him, medical tomorrow according to most sources.

Genuinely excited by this. He looks to be an intelligent player with hunger. He also doesn't look like a waif

I am happy now with Lucas and Mustafi both getting done. Only complaint is both could have been completed before the first game and we may have had more than a point on the board.

Good options now plus we'll benefit having Alexis back a bit deeper

@[deleted] Mustafi has been injured.. Arsenal fans just ignore that when raging about why the Mustafi deal wasn't done sooner.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

@[deleted] Mustafi has been injured.. Arsenal fans just ignore that when raging about why the Mustafi deal wasn't done sooner.

I wasn't aware he was injured. Always thought we were haggling on price/ Valencia were waiting for replacement. 

Eventually we have had to pay a lot of money. The club gets it now I guess. 

By most accounts Valencia wanted 50m euros for Mustafi, so if we wanted him earlier we probably would have had to pay a lot closer to that fee. The crap about sacrificing points for the sake of "2 or 3 million" was always nonsense.

goon wrote:

By most accounts Valencia wanted 50m euros for Mustafi.

That is mostly nonsense since his release clause is 50m anyway. It's pure speculation.

Who knows, but given that we've agreed on approximately 42m euros it can't be far off. What's definitely nonsense is the idea that they only wanted 25m and were were only willing to pay 20.

goon wrote:

Who knows, but given that we've agreed on approximately 42m euros it can't be far off. What's definitely nonsense is the idea that they only wanted 25m and were were only willing to pay 20.

Spot on.

goon wrote:

What's definitely nonsense is the idea that they only wanted 25m and were were only willing to pay 20.

Did anyone say that? Can't seem to recall other than the fact that Dean tweeted about it.

It could well be that we have decided to pay up to their valuation since it's getting closer to deadline and other clubs are actively looking for a CB.

------------- Giroud -----------
Sanchez --- Özil ----- Perez

Looks like a decent attack to me. Perez to go up front if Giroud is injured or off the boil?