Lucas Perez has agreed a three-year deal with West Ham that will see Arsenal net £5m.
With his medical reportedly already completed, Lucas should be announced as a West Ham player today (Thursday, deadline day).
https://twitter.com/efabascalUK/status/1027309075019771904
That tweet was sent on Tuesday and, obviously, there was no Lucas announcement on Wednesday. But there is not believed to be any problem with the deal.
The move brings to an end one of the weirder Arsenal transfers of recent seasons. Signed as a goalscorer for £12.6m, Lucas was afforded few chances by Arsene Wenger during his first season with Arsenal.
In total, he played 948 minutes for the club, scoring seven and assisting five – a direct goal involvement rate of one every 79 minutes which isn’t bad by anyone’s reasoning, let alone a player who only played the full 90 six times.
Why Wenger didn’t rate him despite signing him is something we will probably never know. A poor season on loan with his former club, Deportivo La Coruna, last season saw Lucas struggle to regain anything close to the form he showed before his move to Arsenal. We can only hope that he is able to rebuild himself at West Ham because he seems like a thoroughly likeable chap who deserves more than he has got so far from his time in England.
The £5m spent by West Ham on Lucas takes their summer spending past the £100m-mark according to the Daily Star in their Wednesday edition. He will be the 10th new player to arrive at the club, the second to come from Arsenal after Jack Wilshere signed on a Bosman.