With the amount of injuries we get and if i remember Coqs getting injured last season, i wouldn't be so eager to get rid of Elneny, who seems to be a good utility player. Also it gives us a chance to become more defensive when the requirement necessitates, by playing two of Xhaka, Coqs and Elneny. As i said, it is almost guaranteed that we will sustain at least 2-3 midfield injuries at one time, so having decent backup is necessary. I'd rather play Elneny in a DM position than Ramsey or Wilshere. Saying that, Ramsey is injured and Wilshere is, well, not available.
Newspapers are reporting it as a panic buy, which isn't far off, i'd also call it a budget buy too. With Welbeck still out on a long term injury, Campbell being moved on loan, Walcott not being trusted and Sanogo being ****, I guess a CF was desperately needed. But it's disappointing that we weren't able to get the striker we were so desperately needing for another successive year, lets see if this budget buy is able to get us enough goals to make us competitive. Either way, Sanchez and co will have to contribute more than they did last season for us to have any chance.
We will have to wait and see how he does. I have to say I liked what I saw of him in La Liga last Season. I know its fashionable to be overtly negative these days but Wenger always used to sign lesser known players and its worked out for us numerous times in the past.
I hope you are right. I don't want to write him off as I haven't even seen him play and it sounds; especially from your description; as if he'll offer something different to Giroud, or (hopefully) be able to partner Giroud if needed. I did used to love Wenger's ability to turn unknowns/unwanteds/youngsters like Petit, Viera, Fabergas, Anelka ect into superstars that were amazing and far greater than what they were at their previous clubs - even Henry could be said to be an example of this. But recently he seems to take a lot longer to do it - Coq was at the club for years - played RB, CM, AM before becoming out DM. Bellerin was also at the club ages and only got a look in because of the injuries to Debuchy. Kos took ages to adjust and become the great defender (and great find) he is now. So I think it's probably a bit much to think that 27 year old Perez is going to up his game hugely and amazingly immediately after signing now that the season is already underway.
We will have to wait and see. Wenger can still do it. Koscielny for example.. who had heard of him? On paper he looked a terrible signing. I think Bellerin was a stroke of genius. We signed him just before he turned 16 (for free). He is now the best RB in the league. Outside of Spain Carzorla was also relatively unknown. £13million was an absolute steal. Monreal too. At a time when our rivals are spending 30m+ on their fullbacks Monreal was a very astute buy. The thing is Giroud isn't quick enough to get behind certain types of defences. In fact he struggles against teams that press high. A striker with pace running to balls from Ozil is exactly what we need in that situation. The other thing is Giroud is either hot or cold. He tends to bang in the goals or disappear for games on end. Don't get me wrong I would have been mote excited for Higuain or Lacazette but I'm optimistic this could prove to be a very clever signing.
17 goals in 36 games isn't a terrible return, and he may suit your style well, but he is 28 next month, so I cannot see him improving dramatically, he will either fit or he wont I think. Time will tell. He may not be the World class striker people wanted, and it does stink of Wenger being a miser again, but at least its another option upfront that you didn't have previously.
I totally agree with all of those signings, they were all great, but with the exception of Santi, none of them were instant successes - there was a huge outcry to get rid of Kos and Nacho in their 1st season (and beyond for Nacho), some saying they were terrible. So if he does turn out to be another gem, he may not be a gem straight away. I also think that this could be a really astute signing, I'm just also saying it could be a Welbeck like signing - ie a signing not of the top quality we need, but taking up squad space/wages, or even worse than Welbeck. Time will tell. Hopefully Wenger has hit the jackpot. We'll soon find out by Christmas if he's made a tangible difference.
Don't be too harsh on Perez I watched him last season against Barcalona and he looked the stand out player. He can play across the line and he's clinical. If you get Mustafi and Perez... Add that to Xhaka and Holding et al. I'd say it's a good window. You've addressed the 3 main areas that needed addressing. No doubt some will still moan though
All we can do is go by the stats and at the ripe old age of 27 (soon to be 28 next month) is unlikely to dramatically improve but could be a late bloomer like Vardy, fingers crossed. Let's have a look at his most recent few years statistically: 12/13 season Played for Karpaty Lviv in Ukrainian Premier league - 17 games, 8 goals, 3 assists. Played mainly as a winger (right more) and mainly not in the squad due to his 17 games played 13/14 season Played for PAOK Thessaloniki in the Greek Premier league - 31 games, 9 goals, 11 assists. Played mainly as a right winger and to a much lesser extent, an attacking midfielder. 14/15 season Played for Deportivo de La Coruña in La Liga - 22 games, 6 goals, 3 assists. Played mainly as an attacking midfielder and to a lesser extent secondary striker. He missed 9 games due to not being in the squad and 6 games due to injury. 15/16 season (latest) Played for Deportivo de La Coruña in La Liga - 36 games, 17 goals, 10 assists. Played mainly as a CF (28 games - 11 goals) and to a lesser extent SS (9 games - 8 goals) He certainly is making an improvement year by year and has played all along the front three as well as advanced midfielding positions, which indicates that he is multi-skilled and can pass and move with it from deep. What is heartening to see is that his latest role has been primarily a striking one and he has scored a decent amount as well as assisting. However, it is unlikely that he will be a goal machine and other notable players around him such as Sanchez, Ozil, Ramsey, Cazorla etc will have to contribute significantly more if Perez is to be our main striker. Only way we stand a chance of challenging is if goals are contributed across the board.
Interesting article on Arseblog.com about the two transfers - http://arseblog.com/2016/08/two-new-arrivals-imminent-transfer-thoughts-arsecast-394/ including a blog by a Deportivo fan on Lucas Perez https://moarfootball.com/2016/08/25/a-deportivo-la-coruna-fan-on-lucas-perez/ which has an interesting perspective on him as a player and on his scoring stats.
Interesting article and it gives more life to the stats that I provided. He looks like a good player and well could be the sneaky buy of the season. But as I've said before, the others need to up it also. Most of our players had par to decent seasons, but not many were outstanding. But this Perez guy looks like a baller so will have the ability to interplay with the likes of Ozil, Sanchez and Cazorla. But Wenger will have to play a system that will suit him as well as the rest.
I agree - a big problem we had last season was that our midfield didn't score barely any goals - Sanchez was off form or injured and didn't chip in many, Ozil doesn't score anywhere near enough, neither does Santi - whose shooting from distance is poor, and Ramsey needs to get back to his 2013-14 form and keep making late runs into the box and scoring goals or getting on Giroud's knock downs.
Sanchez's dip in form and injury really hurt us in the goals/assists department. Both Ozil and Cazorla should score more but you can excuse Ozil as he's an assist machine. It was good to see Ramsey having a great Euros tournament and it would be more than welcome if he could replicated that for us. However, trying to play him in the same way would mean making him our chief AM. He was almost an SS at times for Wales, so i'm not sure whether Wenger would give him that much free licence. Going back to Perez, he also plays as an SS and AM, so he could potentially play off Giroud if we opt for both.
I agree with Ramsey/Wales - I can't see him playing the same way/having the same affect for us as he did for Wales unfortunately, as for Wales he had total freedom to play where he wanted - sometimes he was a SS playing off Bale's throwballs, other times he'd be dropping deep, harrying the ball and tackling like a box-to-box midfielder or even a DM, and others he'd be the one setting up Bale or Kanu in a playmaker role. We require a lot more positional discipline from him as he needs to cover Ozil - who likes to drift across the pitch, and also protect the back 4/centre of the pitch (if he's playing centrally) or cover Bellerin's charges up the field (if he's playing on the right).
Have we missed the fact that Perez was a winger/AM prior to last season where he was played as a striker ! So looking at stats prior to last season we need to think of him as a winger/AM and compare him to Walcott/Ox and is he better than their stats for same period. For last season he played as a striker so compare his stats with Giroud and so who is better. also would playing Perez with Giroud get more goals than playing them on their own ? Giroud does lots of knock downs and flick ons but are wasted as we don't have anyone running on to them as they don't react like a striker eg Rambo or Walcott or Ox lets give him till Xmas before we cast aspersions - I remember seeing TH first play at striker and thought he was **** and that AW had lost it, that turned out OK !
He also seemed to be playing for a team who weren't doing too well - finishing 15th and 16th in the La Liga in their last two seasons. So it's not as if he was playing for a top, top team filled with bags of talent, creating loads of chances...
According to David Ornstein Arsenal had a budget of £96 million to spend in this transfer window.If you add up the fees we have paid or will pay for Xhaka,Holding,Asano,Mustafi and Perez it would appear he was not far wrong.Even though Perez is not the stellar signing we were looking for,personally I think this has ended up being a good window as we have bought where we needed to improve the squad and we've invested for the future.
I suppose the other thing is - hopefully Holding keeps improving and Perez proves a hit but it allows the new manager next season pretty much free reign on the striker and CB positions. Though why we only had £96m budget I don't know... It doesn't seem like much when you think of the increased TV money, the wage money we've saved on Flamini, Rosicky and Arteta and the transfer fee for Szczesny (we did sell him right?) and the assumed wage saving on Debuchy.
