Deadline day Lucas Perez links with Everton are again being pushed in the English media, but over in Spain things have been rather different.
The Galician press have been confident that Deportivo La Coruna were getting closer to signing the Arsenal player. After efforts which have gone on since before the window opened, Deportivo were hardly going to give the player up to Everton without a fight.
La Voz de Galicia quote Quico Catalán, president of Levante who also wanted Perez, as saying: “He’s not going to come to Levante, yesterday we were aware of that. In the end he will get what he wanted.”
That’s taken as a clear signal Arsenal’s Perez is moving to Deportivo La Coruna.
Acuerdo #Arsenal 🤝#Deportivo para la cesión de Lucas Pérez. Enhorabuena a los deportivistas. 👍 pic.twitter.com/bgUcBJ64ci
— Kike Marin** (@Kike_Marin_) August 31, 2017
Around the same time as La Voz’s article, Spanish journalist Kike Marin claimed Deportivo have reached an agreement with Arsenal, and he congratulated the club on their efforts.
It’s likely Perez will be moving on loan, and one would assume Arsenal have inserted some kind of clause which will see them get a reasonable fee next summer.
If Everton were genuinely interested today, it looks like they’ve lost out.