Mustafi and Lucas deals will signify successful transfer window for Arsenal insists Wenger
Mustafi and Lucas deals will signify successful transfer
window for Arsenal insists Wenger
Arsene Wenger believes the arrival of
Lucas Perez and Shkodran Mustafi will
represent a successful summer transfer
window for Arsenal as they would have
met the objectives set at the start. The
French manager has also dismissed
talks that the two deals are panic buys
after the club missed out on their initial
targets.
Granit Xhaka arrived early in the
transfer window from Borussia
Monchengladbach following which
Arsenal only signed Takuma Asano —
who has left on loan to Stuttgart — and
Rob Holding, who is seen more as a
prospect than an immediate fix. Wenger
had made it clear that he is looking to
sign another defender and a forward
before the close of the transfer window,
which saw the club linked with a
number of players.
The north London club failed with a
move for Jamie Vardy, while they were
out-priced in their move for Lyon's
Alexandre Lacazette. The Deportivo La
Coruna forward was the next option,
and the Gunners have agreed a £17m
deal and are close to completing the
signing. Mustafi, on the other hand, has
been one of the transfer sagas of the
summer, with both Arsenal and
Valencia going back and forth on the
fee before finally agreeing on a reported
£35m ($46m) fee.
"Look at my face. Is this the face of
someone who tends to panic buy?"
Wenger said with a smile during his
pre-Watford match press conference,
as quoted by the Guardian.
"No, it is the case that everybody is
waiting to get the deals done. When a
[foreign] club wants to sell to an
English club today they ask for a huge
amount of money. So it takes a long
time to settle [on a price]. In the next
two or three days everybody will find
agreements."
Lucas, as he prefers to be known, was
pre-dominantly played as an attacking
midfielder or as a winger in his
previous clubs and it was only last
season that he made the transition to
playing as a centre-forward on a
regular basis. Wenger is convinced he
will be effective in his new position and
highlighted a few of Arsenal's fourth
signing's qualities ahead of his
impending move.
The manager, however, was cautious in
making a judgment on Mustafi, who will
be filling in the centre-back role in the
absence of compatriot and Per
Mertesacker in the hope of convincing
Wenger to keep the spot on a
permanent basis. He is aware of the
Premier League having spent two-and-
a-half years with Everton as a
teenager, but is yet to make his first
appearance having only played in the
Europa League for the Toffees.
"He's a late developer because he
played in a different position [on the
right-hand side of attack]. He has
moved centrally and in a successful
way. I think he has good link-up
qualities, he's good at receiving the ball
and he's a good finisher. But let's see if
we can finish the job first," the French
coach said of the Deportivo forward.
"I think he's a good signing but time
will tell," Wenger said. "He had two
years at Everton, he went to Italy, then
Spain. But, you know, 19 is a difficult
age to play centre-half in the Premier
League. He was Valencia's captain last
season and, if we get it done, we'll have
achieved what we wanted [this
window]," he added.
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