Emery ready to give Perez a second chance at Arsenal

Kolkata, May 25: New Arsenal boss Unai Emery is ready to hand a lifeline to forgotten star Lucas Perez as he is keen to include the 29-year-old in his pre-season squad.

Perez joined Arsenal two years ago under Wenger in a £17million deal after the Spaniard impressed heavily in his spell with La Liga side Deportivo La Coruna where he scored 17 goals and helped them to avoid relegation.

However, after his arrival at Emirates, the attacker struggled for game time and was rarely seen in the Arsenal starting line-up. Perez was limited mostly to substitute and cup appearances and finished his debut season with eight goals and six assists from 22 matches.

But the performance did not fascinate Wenger and Perez term was sent to his former side Deportivo in a year-long loan deal.

After a shaky start, the attacker started to flourish however scored only nine times and assisted eight in 37 games but he failed to prevent his side from getting relegated.

The Gunners board were planning to sell Perez with Italian side Lazio shwoing interest, but now as per latest rumours, Emery has told him a fresh chance.

Emery is well aware of Perez's calibre because of his La Liga stint with Sevilla days.

The new Gunners boss had also earlier tried to sign Perez for PSG in the summer of 2016 only to see him depart for Arsenal.

But Emery has now reportedly told him to report for pre-season training at the club in a few weeks time as Perez is expected to be part of his plans, at least initially, from July.

Arsenal have only a low transfer budget of £50m to spend this summer, before taking potential player sales into account. Thus giving a fresh chance to the versatile forward could be a good move for Emery, who is said to be only looking at midfield and defensive additions this summer.