Everton majority shareholder, Farhad Moshiri, claims that the Toffees have had a lucky escape by not signing Lucas Perez.

The Spaniard was linked with Everton before Arsenal bought him for a reported £17m from Deportivo. Since then, the forward has only made three Premier League appearances and has failed to really secure proper playing time in north London.

When he did begin to build up momentum, he got injured during Arsenal’s EFL Cup clash against Reading at the Emirates.

He’s since returned to Deportivo to get treatment.

Moshiri believes that because of this, as well as not signing Spurs man Moussa Sissoko, Everton dodged a bullet.

“You don’t really know if they would have helped us,” Moshiri said in an interview with talkSPORT.

“Lucas has been injured, Sissoko is suspended, you just never know.”

You have to feel for Lucas. He’s not had the best time since moving to London but it’s far from the disaster it’s being made out to be. He’s scored two goals, assisted three and featured in the Champions League in which he helped Mesut Ozil complete the first hattrick of his professional career.