Arsenal: Wenger Screwing The Pooch With Potential Lucas Perez Exit

Arsenal signed Lucas Perez with muddled intentions, but he has gradually improved. Now that he is pressing for a potential exit, we should be concerned.

Arsenal needed some sort of striking help at the start of the season. Alexis had not yet acclimated to the role and Olivier Giroud was “not a priority” and was given extended time off from the Euros, whether he liked it or not.

In response, Wenger found Lucas Perez from Deportivo La Coruna. The 28 year old had a great record for the lower-tier La Liga side, but the question marks were obviously there. Mainly because he had done it all with a lower tier La Liga side.

All of his forays into higher-tier football (namely Atletico Madrid) wound up fruitless. But Wenger was here to give him a shot. Or at least, that’s what we thought.

Lucas, like every other player known to man, struggled to acclimate to the Premier League initially. This is a different ball game, just like every other league is.

That acclimation process was made even more frustrating by the fact that he was given such limited opportunities. He only made 10 appearances in 2016, two of which were two minute sub cameos.

Yet through that limited exposure, he scored five goals and added two assists. The quality was there, we just needed to see more of it.

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2017 has been a but kinder, as he has already made seven appearances and looks to pass that 10 app tally from 2016. However, he has still only started (inexplicably, I might add) two Premier League matches.

While reports indicate that Lucas would leave this summer if his game time doesn’t pick up, the sources behind such reports are in question. But the point isn’t about him staying or going. The point is that Wenger has a huge, untapped weapon in Lucas that he is leaving on the bench in favor of loyalty to Theo “Ghost Prime” Walcott and Alex “Learning To Walk” Iwobi.

These two guys have been there through success and failure and, Walcott especially, have shown no great ability to impact the flow of a game.

Lucas absolutely can. His goal production says enough as is, but then you look at goals like what he had against Bournemouth, and when he rocked the crossbar against Watford and you see a guy who can make a difference.

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The Gunner’s desperately need difference makers and if indeed Lucas does leave, it will be a massive failure for Le Prof.

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