Lucas Perez’s agent planning an exit for his client

Rodrigo Fernandez Lovelle, Lucas Perez’s agent, sat in on a radio show in Coruña last night to discuss his client’s future, a future which is apparently away from Arsenal given his lack of playing time in recent months.

Via El Desmarque:

"If everything is still the same and the coach is the same, in theory the opportunities are going to be the same, few, and our idea is to leave . We know that Arsenal is the “owner” of the player, and that contract says that its duration is three more seasons,” he said.

The two destinations most often cited are a return to Deportivo, which would surely need Perez to either take a pay cut or have Arsenal cover some of his salary, or Sevilla. However, Fernandez Lovelle shot down the idea of Sevilla as nothing more than a media-based option though they did meet with Sevilla when Monchi was still the club’s sporting director.

Fernandez Lovelle also went on to state that Arsene Wenger provided a loan to China in February as an option to get more minutes, but that was turned down by Perez’s camp as the 2018 World Cup is in the player’s mind and minutes at a top league will likely do more for his chances of making the national team than minutes in China.

It’s no secret that Perez hasn’t seen much playing time this season and probably far less than what he expected when he left Coruña, a club and region he deeply cares for. However, despite his reduced minutes he still contributed seven goals and five assist in 948 minutes over 21 appearances (nine of which were starts). The highlight of his season was undoubtedly his hat trick versus FC Basel in a 4-1 champions league victory.

Should the recent rumors of a Henry Onyekuru transfer be true, expect Perez to be the first player out the door in order to make way for a new attacker.