It turns out that Arsenal could have been following Lucas Perez for far longer than we realised.

Lucas Perez recently returned to Deportivo to give final press conference so he could say goodbye. He seems like quite a character, even claiming that if someone had told him he would be signing for the Gunners 10 years ago, he would have thrown them off a bridge.

The striker also revealed that Arsene Wenger has been following him since he played in Greece at PAOK. This means we could have been aiming to buy him all the way back in 2013. How’s that for a panic buy?

https://twitter.com/MoarFootball/status/772009801735864321

To be fair, I think most of us had realised that while we did need the Spaniard because we needed another striker, our decision to choose him wasn’t last minute by any means.

It probably good for Lucas that he knows he wasn’t a panic buy as, in theory, he’ll feel like he’s right for the team and not just someone to be shoe-horned in.