It has been confirmed that West Ham United have signed Lucas Perez from Arsenal on a three-year deal.
The Spaniard leaves the Emirates after an underwhelming couple of years at the Emirates in a move thought to be worth around £4 million, including bonuses.
Signed from Deportivo La Coruna for £17 million on transfer deadline day two years ago, he felt like a signing foisted on Arsene Wenger by Ivan Gazidis at a time when we were a bit short on attackers.
He never seemed to earn the trust of the Frenchman and spent most of his first season on the bench. Somewhat miffed by the way things were turning out in London, he pushed for a return to Deportivo and eventually had his wish granted, albeit on loan.
Despite being greeted to a hero’s welcome, last season’s spell in La Liga soured his reputation amongst the Estadio Riazor faithful. By February some fans were even calling for him to be sacked as Deportivo’s form fell off a cliff. They were eventually relegated.
Lucas returned to Arsenal this summer and was apparently eager to fight for a place under Unai Emery.
Alas, with a bloated squad and cash needed to cover other expenses, Raul, Sven and Ivan have decided it’s time to cut our losses.
Speaking about his move, Lucas told West Ham’s website: “I’m very happy to be here at such an historic Club.
“I’m very excited, as West Ham are giving me the chance to stay in the Premier League and I’m very happy to be part of this new project.
“West Ham have great fans and play in an amazing stadium, so to sign here brings me great joy. I’m very motivated.”
Had high hopes for him at one point but he didn’t quite do it. Good luck to him, except against us.
Imagine being behind Andy Carroll in the pecking order…eurghh
Andy Carroll is hardly ever fit
Why the hell we did not sell him last year to Sociedad for 10M, but instead loaned for 12M and sold twice as cheaper now? Bollocks.
I’m pretty sure we accepted offers for him from a bunch of clubs, but his (or his agent) dug their heels in and forced through the loan to Deportivo.
Bargain.
4 million? Really?
How the hell does this club end up selling its players for such amazing bargains.
A combination of supply and demand and socialist wage structure. When you decide to pay people more than they’re worth, it’s likely you’ll be stuck with them, then you have less money to compete for talent who you can extract more value from. Then on top of not of being able to shift players earning too much, you then decide to buy some players, but your stuck with the players who you’ve decided to pay too much, leaving you with an oversupply of players and an under supply of places. This surprisingly enough puts you in a very weak negotiating… Read more »
That ‘socialist’ wage structure hasn’t been a thing for a long time, and even then it was overblown.
Whose going to pay Welbeck £115K a week? And how much are Ospina, Campbell & Jenkinson on that they can’t shift them? They all remind me of the Denilson soap opera.
So essentially we’re paying players more than they are worth in general?
If that’s the case, it suggests the only way we have been able to recruit players has been to overpay them.
That’s an even more depressing scenario than the socialist wage structure idea.
it all boils down to wenger, he paid over the odds for these players, nobody else would pay that much for them, and that’s how we are lumbered with ozil, because no one on earth would have paid the amount of money wenger paid him
The troll has returned.
Do you think Man City are able to attract players only on the basis on the reputation of the club and the promise to win? Do you know the salary they give to their players ?
£350K to Ozil is certainly not a socialist. It is highly capitalist.
Blogs, Rich is just using “socialist” to mean “overpaid,” not to describe the old wage-parity structure. I’m sure he thinks Ozil’s wages are part of the “socialist” wage structure as well.
How are you sure?
You don’t know me..
You’re taking a wild punt….
A bigger thing is that players tend not to improve at arsenal, their value therefore drops
Totally untrue. Most players who have signed for us have improved. Perez looked good when he was given limited opportunities so I can’t see that implies to him.
Like who? Aubameyang was already a 40 goal a season striker Mkhitaryan an established player Lacazette went from a 30+ goal a season striker to a 17 goal a season striker Xhaka- I really like him, but he’s hardly been a poster boy for consistency Mustafi – is just erratic, excellent one moment and equally erratic in the next Kolasinac – Went from Bundesliga team of the season to being benched by the brilliant Maitland Niles who’s a right footed central midfielder. Wilshere – didn’t produce anything decent on a consistent basis since the 2010/11 season Ox- huge talent, who… Read more »
The players who are already established stars and fail to “improve” are completely irrelevant to the point you are making, though I would argue that both Ozil and Alexis have been better for us than they were in Spain. And including Lacazette, who went from Ligue 1 to the Prem and was injured for a long period, is just dishonest; of course he won’t score as many goals in England.
Probably not most (Kolasinac, Xhaka, Mustafi, Perez, Elneny, Gabriel, Welbeck, Ospina, Podolski, Gervinho, Santos), although rarely a due credit is given for those who improve enormously.
So how is the last paragraph relevant if the signing was “foisted on” Wenger?
Never rated him. Glad to see him go.
Bye chaff!
better than welbeck
Why is he better than Welbeck?
In what sense?
Welbeck has flaws but he also has height and power to give the team.
Perez is more akin to Lacazette and we already have the Frenchman.
Hope selling him to West Ham doesn’t come back and bite us on the arse.
Wilshere and now Lucas.
7 REASONS I THINK ARSENAL WILL HAVE A BETTER SEASON THAN LAST: 1. Unai Emery: – we will be more tactically astute. Players will put in their all to impress him. 2. Lucas Torreira:- A major deficiency in the team has been addressed. Santi has to some great extent has been replaced. 3. Bernd Leno:- Not him per se, but the genuine competition for the number one bodes well. We can already see the performance of Cech in pre-season. 4. Aubameyang:- We are starting this season with a better fire power than last. 5. Mesut Ozil:- His international retirement will… Read more »
Yes to all, except 6. We are a man down already. But we can now finally get the chance to see after 22 years whether injuries have been down to inadequate preparation, or just the kind of players we look for, and the pitch (lots of theories about the hardness of the carpet-esque pitch)
I just had to say something about the injuries. I am cautiously optimistic.
I’ve blamed it on the pitch(es) for years, so was happy to see us change the system used on training pitches a year or two ago.
I think more work on conditioning, as opposed to training with a football, might also help.
Our summer has been no more than efficient, functional and somewhat underwhelming. Leno – seen as the biggest young GK talent in Germany but according to experts never made the step up expected. Lichtsteiner – will probably be happier playing second fiddle than Debuchy who wanted to play, but I’m not sure at 34 it’s an upgrade. Sokratis – Signed IMO because of Koscielny’s injury, again I’m not sure he’ll make us any better, this isn’t a criticism just the reality of the situation. Torreira – Never heard of him before the World Cup, but looks like he has the… Read more »
How can you talk about Chelsea getting Kepa without mentioning that they lost Courtois? Is that really an upgrade for this season?
VALID points. Everyone thinks he has the most beautiful wife as Wenger used to quib. Look at the match against Chelsea, Arsenal fans all waxing lyrical about our young teenager Smith Rowe but it was the Chelsea teenager Hudson Ondoi who impressed. Only in Arsenal fans’ minds do we think we have done well. If you ask a neutral, they would not get excited about most of our signings bar maybe Torreira. We are not competing at top level anymore. We are skimping just above the Evertons, WestHam or Fulhams now. The buying division could have shown more ambition to… Read more »
This was not a mediocre window. Keeping the core of our players of last season is key. If we came 6th with that bunch, but the addressing of the DM position( with Torreira) from were it all leaked last season is a major upgrade on the entire complexion of the team. Czech has all of a sudden become super and a penalty saver because of Leno, another upgrade. Guendouzi can both play DM and Central midfield, an overkill in areas that have cost us for over a decade. The boy was one of the best players against Chelsea and could… Read more »
Kepa is hardly world class. Rated at 20 mill euro, Chelsea paid 80 mill. I don’t know how we would react if arsenal paid that much for a prospect.
Allison has 37 starts in serie A. Is he world class and worth 62 mill euro? For me the jury is still out. I have to see for mysel if they are better than bargain Leno. I happen to think that Leno has played well in preseason and that fans are looking for flaws because they have heard that he has flaws.
Our home form was second in the league, so I don’t know if last season was all about bad personnel. I’m pretty excited about our new players, Mkhi and Auba included.
one reason why I don’t think we will improve on last season, our defence
That alone was a bit shambolic.
Buying in another ex Dortmund asset who is slow before the new gaffer is signed.
This is a critical area of the squad we could have done with less haste and more thought.
Particularly as it appears the gaffer likes to press high and hold the high line.
Buying early is NOT all good.
Waste of 16m.
I do not agree completely with you, Santori. Inasmuch as I share with you in being apprehensive of Socratis or even Mustafi, I am still optimistic because it might as well turn out to be that the back line was not the problem all along, but the adequate protection which they didn’t get. With Torreira, a natural DM coming in now, we can finally draw some conclusions. I want to go into this season, giving everyone the benefit of the doubt including Ozil. I am prepared to look at them freshly under Unai.
Fucking shambles. Last summer has to be the low point of our financial mismanagement. And people ask where has the money gone. Pls Dennis let this new era be ruled with more common sense
all the money,s gone on ozil,s wagers
Still a troll.
no, just being honest…
We bought him two years ago for £17m. Did nothing the first year because Wenger clearly didn’t like him even though he looked fairly promising and should have, at the very least, featured a bit more prominently, then shipped off back to Deportivo last year for a measly loan fee and now we’ve sold him, to a Premier League club no less, for a ridiculously low £4m. This is nothing short of a transfer disaster. We’ve lost easily £10m+ and strengthened a rival, albeit a lesser one. Frankly this should never be happening, especially at a club as big as… Read more »
Its not one of our best deals but these sort of poor deals are frankly far and few in between over the span of Arsene’s reign. Generally he bought low so even with the fair amount of duds he made, they were of little impact. The two that stand out (besides Andre Santos) were Debuchy through various injury issues and lack of desire to compete lost value rapidly and of course Perez. Perez is 3 seasons in so a third the value of what we paid (armotisation considered) is fair for a non performing (some would say regressed) player. BUT… Read more »
Goal or assist every 79 minute in the little he played for us.
“he felt like a signing foisted on Arsene Wenger by Ivan Gazidis at a time when we were a bit short on attackers.”
This line is completely unnecessary and speculative dressed as fact. Don’t wanna see this sort of thing. We know you don’t like like Ivan, we get it, but don’t peddle complete speculations.
This is even worse as Andrew in this morning’s blogs reported that the arsenal scouts didn’t tell Arsene there Lucas wasn’t of the required level but Wenger sanctioned the deal anyways. Nothing to do with Ivan.
So how if your opposite take not speculative?
is not if
To be fair, it’s Andrew’s take as well.
On the flip side, the statement starts with “he felt like”, so it’s not like it was framed as fact.
However, this is Arseblog News rather than “Arseblog Opinion”, so maybe it would be better just to report the things that are known.
To be honest, it’s “Arseblog News”, which means blogs can do what the hell he (and the news team!) feel like!
I’m not sure how to break it to you, but all news sites affect the portrayal of news presented on their platform.
But its not helpful when not put into context of course.
I’m aware it’s not dressed as fact, my apologies and I know this site has no reason to be objective, but stuff like that? Not cool
Agree too much supposition. Perez was brought in as a hedge at the time bc we were worried about goals and (over) reliance on Giroud.
People tend not to remember context.
Price was a risk but the market for CFs at that point was extremely tight.
All this Perez was a bad choice shit is frankly hindsight.
Good luck my friend ??
Andre Gomes to Everton on loan.
Plus Yerry Mina (27m)
Still plenty of good value out there.
Plenty of options left for wide players – Lozano, Neres, Thauvin, Carrasco, Fekir to name a few.
Think gaffer has his hands full with an entirely new squad as Keown said and he will assess again in January, risk some areas for now.
Hammers – Yamolenko, Wilshere, Perez, Carlos Sanchez, Felipe Anderson
Everton – Bernard, Digne, Mina, Andre Gomes
Fulham – Seri, Chambers, Mitrovic, Schurle
Arsenal – Sokratis, Guendouzi, Leno, Lichsteiner, Torreira
Like I said, with exception of Torreira, none of our additions are anything out of the ordinary for bigger clubs (not to be confused with the fact that they have of course potential to improve like everyone-else)