Lucas Perez’s career plan seems to be this: He signs a lucrative contract with a foreign club, then decides he can’t bear to be away from Spain, pleads to be released and starts the process again.
In the summer 2013 transfer window he signed for PAOK and after a season he pushed his way out, initially on loan, to Deportivo La Coruna.
Depor sold him to Arsenal in 2016, and for months his agent was pushing the Gunners to allow the player a return to Spain. So off to Depor he went again, on loan, and when that loan ended he moved to West Ham on a permanent deal worth around £4m.
Within a few months, there were already claims of a potential return to Spain, with a loan seemingly what was being planned by the player’s camp way before the January window opened.
A pattern has emerged of signing a relatively big contract and then wanting a return to Spain on loan, likely keeping the majority if not all of the wages.
In the winter market it was reported Real Betis had been keen, just as they had the previous summer. However, West Ham, according to the claims, offered almost €3m a year after tax, much more than he’d have got at Betis.
Betis, and the player, would have taken a loan move in January, but the Hammers weren’t prepared to play the game and insisted it was a permanent exit or nothing.
He stayed. Now, they just want rid of him.
La Voz de Galicia report Alaves have made a €2m offer, which the Premier League club are minded to accept. However, Perez is taking his time.
The 30 year old is ‘open to hearing more proposals’, but knows he wants to return to Spain. The problem is, with it not being a loan, he’d have to take a fairly hefty pay-cut on his West Ham contract, which still has two years left to run.
