According to BBC Sport, Arsenal have sold Lucas Perez to West Ham United for a fee thought to be in the region of £4million.

What’s the story?

Considering the Gunners shelled out around £17million - as reported by Sky Sports - to bring the striker to the Emirates only two seasons ago, this represents a major financial loss for the North London club.

Transfermarkt value Lucas Perez at £6.75million, suggesting that the Hammers have bagged themselves a bargain here. 

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Unai Emery certainly needed to trim down his squad ahead of the upcoming campaign, but the departures of David Ospina or Danny Welbeck, who is heading into the final 12 months of his contract with the club, would have been more welcome.

Even if Perez pushed for an exit himself, Arsenal should have commanded a far greater fee than they managed.

The Hammers win big

In Perez’s first season in English football, the 29-year-old showed some promise for Arsenal. 7 goals and 5 assists is a very healthy return from only 21 appearances, of which only 9 were starts.

However, the Spaniard never looked well-suited to Arsene Wenger’s system and was often only used in cup competitions against weaker opponents. 

A loan spell last season saw Perez return to his old club, Deportivo La Coruna. 8 strikes and 6 assists in 35 La Liga games were decent figures for the forward, but fell a long way short of the 17 goals and 10 assists that he racked up in the season prior to his switch to North London.

West Ham fans will be hoping he can rediscover his best and most prolific form at the London Stadium this season. If the striker can manage that then his £4million price-tag will be reflected upon as one of the finest bits of business done during this transfer window. 

Even if Perez can’t quite hit those heights again, his current standards are still very decent, and his technical quality and physical presence would add a lot to Manuel Pellegrini’s attacking contingent.

In any case, West Ham look to have come out of this deal as the big winners, and Arsenal ought to take a long hard look at how they’ve managed the offloading of this unwanted forward.