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Football

01st Aug 2018

Arsenal flop set to leave for Fiorentina in £7m transfer

Since he joined in 2016 from Deportivo La Coruña, he has failed to break into the first team and now looks set to leave for a fee of £7m

Reuben Pinder

His move to Arsenal just didn’t work out

After joining from Deportivo La Coruña, Arsenal fans had high hopes for Lucas Perez. He was given the number 9 shirt, he had come off the back of his most prolific season in La Liga, and offered something different up front that neither Olivier Giroud nor Danny Welbeck offered.

But he failed to live up to expectations, and couldn’t break into the side for a sustained period of time. The Spaniard is now set to join Fiorentina for a fee of around £7m, according to reports.

Despite his poor form at Arsenal, that is incredibly value in the current market for a 29-year-old Premier League striker.

The move comes at the end of a busy summer for Arsenal, who also plan to sell Danny Welbeck if the right offer comes along. The Gunners have signed Stephan Lichtsteiner, Lucas Torreira, Sokratis Papastatholpolous and Berndt Leno already in this window after Unai Emery took charge of the club after Arsène Wenger’s 22 year spell as manager.

Fiorentina are getting themselves a bargain, and his arrival could suggest that they are preparing to let Giovanni Simeone leave the club after Atlético Madrid launched a bid for the Argentine striker, hoping to reunite the player with his father, Diego Simeone.

Fiorentina rejected their offer, demanding more than €40m but the arrival of Perez could suggest that they are preparing for life after Simeone,