Lucas Perez says he persuaded Arsenal to allow him to rejoin Deportivo La Coruna on loan even though the Gunners accepted offers for a permanent deal from a number of other clubs.
The Spanish striker returns to the Riazor after an unhappy year in London where he was predominantly confined to the substitutes bench.
It became obvious he’d be surplus to requirements when Arsene Wenger added Alexandre Lacazette to the squad and he immediately began plotting his journey home.
“I’m where I want to be,” Perez is quoted as saying by Riazor.org.
“I have a right to decide what is going to happen with my future and what I want to do.
“Arsenal understood that and I’m grateful to them. They understood my situation and the fact that I wanted to return home.”
“Arsenal defended their own interests, they initially didn’t want me to return to Deportivo.
“They have reached agreements with many clubs but I clearly told them that my intention was to join Depor and no other alternative.
“I don’t want to give a number but in the last three or four days I spoke to many sporting directors and coaches. But I reiterated that my wish was to return to Deportivo.”
Depending on your outlook, our decision to let Lucas force a loan move either makes us look weak or, given we basically mugged him off for 12 months, it’s a nice gesture that could ultimately cost us a few million quid.
Depor could pay up to €4 million for the right to loan Lucas this year and are paying a portion of his wages. They don’t have an option to buy him though.
I’m done caring.
It’s gotten that way. We’re stumbling from one embarrassing situation to another.
Wenger is the Trump of fucking things up. Just when Trump does or says something that is so low you think, well thats it, he can’t top that. When it comes to lows the bar has been set very high. However then just a few days later he does something that tops that, and after a while you go, you know what, I need to stop saying he couldn’t get worse. That is Wenger for you. Every year he does the same mistakes. You keep telling yourself well he will change things *this* transfer window. But each window is an… Read more »
How can it be ALL of his fault? It’s madness to think he can do it alone. We miss David Dein so very much. Gazidis is a useless waste of space and should be fired. Gazidis Out.
Look, I also think Lucas had to have a nice story, as this, to tell seeing as his agent got involved with trying to get a deal which satisfied Arsenal’s objective. You just never know what the club’s, players and agents agree to when they make their “happy to be here” speeches.
Gazidis clearly stated changes needed to be made before the end of last season. He was also clearly undermined by Kroenke and Wenger from making the changes he believed we needed to make.
In situations like this we need to cut off the head of the snake (Kroenke).
For Arsenal to make any sporting progress Kroenke needs to go. He’s here purely for the money. For him sporting success is just a bonus.
so therefore he needs to resign… if he has any integrity
Gazidis wanted a director of football to help Wenger. Wenger said no and that he wanted to handle things himself. How is that Gazidis’ fault and how is it not all Wenger’s?!
There’s a lot to blame Wenger for (in addition to the board and Kroenke). But to compare him with Trump crosses the line. Trump is an absolute disgrace, Wenger is a man with conscience at least (he’s made some bad choices and repeats errors, but at least he has a soul).
Not sure that he has you know… If he did he would resign
well yes, it wasn’t the greatest of analogies but I think we all know where the op was coming from..it just gets worse and worse for us supporters
Isn’t Coquelin a holding midfielder? Wilshere can also play in that position.
Winter is coming.
Winter is HERE
As someone who is also a Cleveland Browns fan, please heed me, and never make the mistake of assuming things can’t get more incomprehensibly bad (and bizarre).
Not only we a profit making football/business club, but staying classy is just as important 😀
So this transfer window is what a ‘catalyst for change’ looks like huh?
Gazidis you got mugged by Wenger.
Prepare for an absolutely toxic season.
Joke of a club.
Cataclyst for change!
catalyst for change was “we are no longer going to splash money out on players such as Sanchez and Ozil. Instead, we will see how much money we can bank.”
I guess it’s technically a change. A really crappy one indeed.
Thin line between catalysts and cataclysm
Who’s that singing?
Hope fully she is fat and looking at Wenger and Kroenke…
Best comment of the month goes to…
(…I know, the month is just one day old, but still. Brilliant!)
And Gazidis. How come our CEO never gets called out? Is it bacause he’s hiding in a corner counting his cash? Gazidis out.
From what I understand, via numerous articles, Gazidis was pushing for wholesale change, but was rendered impotent by Wenger running and crying to Kroenke.
Link? I don’t see those reports.
The club needs drastic change, but Gazidis is just a suit and knows nothing about football.
Did the Gunners exceed their credit card limit?? right muckup with Alexis.
Or a set up to make it look like we were trying to buy Lemar.
2months after he returns too us next year he will be 30 and will almost definately not make the first team so were going to take a 10+million loss on a player who was actually pretty decent.
By then we could well have a new manager who may give him a fair chance?
Actually mate you signed a contract with Arsenal sure you can reject offers but if they want you to rot in the reserves they can make you do that.
This is why I think transfer fees should be finished. Is there any other job where you aren’t allowed to quit and take another offer.
The contract should just contain a notice period. If the player wants to leave without serving notice they pay a fee/forego salary as you would in a normal job.
That would kill lower league teams and have knockout on effect all the way down through semi pro and amateur, unless some kind of compensation system is created.
Knock on*
I don’t think they can give notice. There should be salary caps which are universal. No transfer fees instead trades or free agent transfers
Surely it will make lower league team run more efficiently or cease to exist. There is a lot of debt in lower league teams and depending on transfers to break even is not a sustainable business model
Leagues evolve but to say its not sustainable? This system has been around for a long time. So you want to give clubs the power to move players around without their consent? So if a player has a contract in EPL they can trade him to some club in Poland? How do you make a salary cap universal? This isn’t the franchise system the US uses. Ronaldo’s salary is probably more then all the clubs in Portugal or Japan or Netherlands. Next, we create a Universal Draft and force players to play for clubs they have no interest in like… Read more »
I’d take the contract for 35000 a week!
Yes, any job you signed a contract lol You know they signed a contract and are not lifetime servants?
If the club wants to get rid of a player or an injured player they can just give him notice even if they have 2-3 yrs left on that contract? not have to pay any compensation as long as that player got a notice?
Lol…sure are a lot of miserable people now. Am glad Perez got what he wanted and the club didnt stand in his way…we dont really need another unhappy player even if it costs us some money
Guys, please spare a thought for Mathieu Debuchy, who is today still an Arsenal player
Why should we care about debuchy?
Have no idea how he would be today, nor his attitude, but when we bought him he was first-choice right back for France and looked good for us. After his first injury, he looked great for the 20 minutes he was on before being injured again. Manchester United (who have Antonio Valencia) wanted him. So, maybe as good cover on the right as Jenks would have been.
Poor lad
We might as well start using him, im sure he’ll make an adequate backup goalie
With his dodgy shoulder he’s a perfect fit! Ospina will play centre back or, in case we’re chasing a goal, be deployed as an extra striker. With Walcott making his pinpoint crosses, he’s a real threat on headers.
Debuchy used to seem like a self-interested jerk. Now I am beginning to think he was ahead of the curve in recognizing the shitshow. Much more sympathetic figure to me these days.
There is a huge difference between MD and LP. MD actually wanted to go a club willing to pay a similar salary to play. Plus he was legitimately National Team Player for France.
Does he even train with the first team? Why doesn’t Arsenal just come to an agreement with him and release him?
Couldn’t give a fuck about our interests anymore. Glad the player got what he wanted after being treated like shit for a year.
Yeah. We’ve been buying way too many “who?” players. They might turn out alright, but if they’re meant to be “for the future”, then keep them. If they’re meant to be stop-gaps, then why aren’t they playing? If they’re meant to improve the team, why aren’t they replacing someone worse? We’ve gotten used to “LANS” – but some of our actual signings feel more like “Not Like A Signing At All” – because they’re just put in a drawer somewhere and forgotten. And then we loose money offloading them, not to mention their massive wages. It boggles the mind. I… Read more »
Bored of this now, good luck to the guy but let’s move on
Winter is not coming, it has been here quite a while, but we’ve been fooled by a occasional glimpse of the sun (FA cup).
A transfer window with a wholesale of players, a pissed and demotivated Alexis in the squad poisoning the athmosphere and no new players in besides Lac/Sead is far worse than I could imagine even for Arsenal.
Do we know for a fact that alexis has poisoned the atmosphere?
Or are we basing it purely on a smile and press gossip?
Fans have to make the emirates stadium toxic ! it is better if they don’t go at all but if they did they should protest constantly ! But my emotional side is upset for players like : Giroud , Laca , Kos , Kolasinac , Iwobi that actually care about the club , i don’t like them to be in a toxic environment but it’s for their own good and it will become a story for them to tell to their grand children 😀 ! Kroenke is ruining the club and we can’t let that happen ! so let the… Read more »
#InvadeThePitch Honestly I feel like we’re just going to accept this, do our whole “get behind the club” routine and throw around a couple useless banners that Kronke will ignore. I will always love Arsenal but this whole transfer fiasco is just disrespectful to the fans that keep the club running. Seriously, is invading the pitch not an option? It will cost the club money and look terrible from Public relations aspect, Kronke will have to do something at that point no?
No need to invade the pitch, we only need the fan base to be united and protest together.
No manager ever survived a prolonged demo against him by the vast majority of supporters at home games.
I get tired of this victim syndrome from our fans, if you really want him out make your voices known thought out the whole game at every home game, if the majority do this he will be gone sooner rather than later.
It goes way beyond the manager, unless the finances are affected Krone will never take notice.
Not true, he clearly cares about public image. Look how quickly the hunting coverage was withdrawn from the outdoorsman TV channel once the criticism came in.
Just to add people are going nuts on the clubs Twitter account I can just imagine what will happen on a match day especially if he is going to keep coming up with his bizarre team selections, obviously results will play a big part too. We do look a weakened side compared to last year, time will tell but it doesn’t look good one bit.
Im so embarrassed. Literally afraid to wear my gear for the inevitable sh*t ill get in the streets
The state of our club can be summed up with this Key and Peele sketch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGAMbNKcN1U&feature=youtu.be
I’m a tad surprised with all the love Lucas receives here. Sure he hasn’t had a fair crack of the whip (injuries haven’t helped) and he’s talented footballer, but he and his agent seem to be mouthing off to the press a fair amount and even negotiated a deal to go to China during the winter (despite being injured for much of the first half of the season).
I’m not a fan of Debuchy, but he gets absolutely slaughtered here, is there much difference between the two? Debuchey probably has more to sulk about to be honest.
Perez claimed one motive for wanting a move was being chosen for Spain, which was pretty much a fantasy; Debuchy wanted to move so he could be chosen again for France which was then (but is no longer) realistic. So yeah, more justification to sulk.
This is exactly the “caring” attitude that has accumulated so much dead wood on ridiculous wages in the squad that we can’t improve the first team.
Wow. Just wow. You really gotta love the fact that instead of competing with Bayern Munich, our club is being bullied by Lucas fucking Perez. Look, I liked the guy, but he chose to sign a contract with Arsenal. Okay, so he didn’t get played. Reason enough to want to leave. But at that point, it’s about a deal that’s best for the club. Not Perez, the club. He doesn’t agree to a move, he can “compete for a spot” (evil laugh). There’s no way a self-respecting club would allow a fringe player to hold them hostage. Depor should never… Read more »
There’s so much wrong with Arsenal, and so much wrong with our transfers–but this isn’t part of it. We got offers to buy him from other clubs, and those clubs tried to convince him to join, but he declined (as is his right). Given that, what would we possibly gain by forcing him to remain in our reserves another year rather than play for Depor? It would be different if there were any prospect of him playing for us but, since that is close to nil, keeping him would simply be spite (and spite that cost us €4 million).
Immediate gain? Maybe nothing. Maybe not entertaining offers from Deportivo would have forced Lucas’ hand and he would have agreed to a move elsewhere. But in terms of the long-term image of our club, this situation is disastrous (or would be, it we weren’t such a shitstorm regardless). A player who has barely played has gotten his way when one of the richest clubs in the world wanted something else to happen. ALL the players can see that they can make the club do what they want, not what it wants (see also Ox refusing to go to Chelsea at… Read more »
I think it was very decent of us.
We bought him, didnt use him and he became miserable with us.
Good to know not all players are just pricetags.
We’re not selling our “rejects” well enough.
Surely even at 28/29yrs, he has great use for many other clubs (in Italy) other than Deportivo in Spain.
We need to improved in the used player sales department. Llorente got sold for decent amount at 32yrs, no reason we can’t get 14m for this poor fellow.
Bloody hell, this comment section is turning into le grove..not good people, just chill a bit. It’s only football at the end of the day