Arsenal: Lucas Perez Deal Getting Better And Better

Arsenal seemingly signed Lucas Perez on a whim and few agreed. But this deal is getting more appealing by the day, isn’t it?

When Arsenal first signed Lucas, the uneducated (not in a bad way) public was pretty skeptical. They didn’t know who he was, why he deserved to play for the club, why he was so cheap or why he wasn’t the World Class striker that everyone is perpetually calling for.

Slowly but surely, all of those worries are dissipating. First, we found out that Lucas was actually the subject of Arsene Wenger’s interest for quite some time. The reports indicated it went back to the winter, but various social media sources indicate that Arsenal touched base with Lucas back when he was in Greece.

We also heard that Lucas was on Everton’s radar, but as it turns out, he actually snubbed not only Everton, but Hull City, Villareal and Sevilla for Arsenal. It’s one thing to have no one interested in the guy at all. That should be a red flag when we have to put all our eggs in Wenger’s basket, hoping he has identified a talent (Yaya Sanogo…).

But for Lucas to be coveted by Ronald Koeman as well as two quality La Liga sides shows that Wenger was not alone in his identification of Lucas as a solid solution, and one that can definitely fit in at the top tier of the Premier League.

Another neat little tidbit is that the man that was called in to replace Lucas, Joselu, has said that he does not want to replace Lucas at all. He just wants to score goals.

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Forgive me if I’m reading too much into this, but Joselu admitting that he doesn’t want to replace Lucas feels like another nod to Lucas and what he was able to do. Keep in mind that Lucas contributed to 25 goals last season. Deportivo only scored 45. For you non-math whizzes out there, that means he contributed to over 50% of the 15th placed side’s goals. He did more than just ‘score goals’ like Joselu has set his objective at.

Joselu doesn’t want to replace Lucas because he can’t. He will not contribute to that many goals, I can guarantee you that. And he is familiar with the Premier League as well, he’s just on loan from Stoke City.

So, and I may be stretching here, but if a striker who is familiar with the Premier League moves to replace a striker in La Liga and says that he cannot (my words, not his, but still) replace that striker, then doesn’t the striker he was going to replace merit the quality of football that his replacer left behind?

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That’s confusing. But my point is simply that we are being handed more and more optimism with each day. Lucas wasn’t a stop-gap, no interest, out of the blue signing. He was thought out over a long period of time, coveted by many quality teams and Arsenal won out. So let’s look forward to seeing what he can do at the Emirates.

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