With a combined six Premier League starts, it’s fair to say Alaves’ La Liga star didn’t enjoy his time in the Premier League with the Gunners or the Hammers.
Lucas Perez has described his moves to Arsenal and West Ham United as a ‘misstep’ in his career while explaining why he rejected the chance to join Barcelona recently, in an interview with Marca.
La Liga’s answer to Jamie Vardy scored for fun at boyhood club Deportivo La Coruna in 2015/16, plundering 17 goals in the Spanish top flight to catch the eye of one of England’s bona fide giants.
But it is fair to say Perez’s time at Arsenal didn’t quite go to plan. The £17 million signing made just two Premier League starts under Arsene Wenger and never came close to living up to his eye-watering price-tag.
He might have doubled that tally across London at West Ham but, with just four starts for the Hammers under his belt, few eyebrows were raised when Perez returned to Spain in the summer of 2019.
These days, the 31-year-old is enjoying talismanic status once again at Alaves and bad memories of sitting on the bench in England were enough to make him think twice about the chance to become Barcelona’s new number nine before Martin Braithwaite made a controversial switch to the Camp Nou instead.
“In the winter transfer window, like all transfer windows, teams usually call,” said the one-time Atletico Madrid youngster. “But in my head, I wanted to end the season here (at Alaves) because I am happy and I have a contract.
“I didn’t want to take another misstep, where I would not have opportunities, as happened to me in England.
“What is clear to me is that I want to do well and I want to feel like a player again as I am doing here, where they have given me love since day one.”
Forming an impressive partnership with ex-Newcastle United man Joselu, Perez has been a striker reborn in Spain.
He has produced ten La Liga goals while becoming the first Alaves player to score in five successive games for 65 years in the autumn.
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