Deportivo reluctant to up £11m offer for Arsenal outcast Lucas Perez as Gunners demand £13.4m

Deportivo La Coruna do not intend to up their bid for Arsenal outcast Lucas Perez as the Gunners struggle to trim their squad.

As Standard Sport reported last week Deportivo have made an offer worth around £11million but Arsenal want £13.4million, having spent £17m to bring Lucas to the Emirates from Galicia less than a year ago.

The Spanish side do not intend to improve on this bid and it is understood there are currently no plans for further talks between Deportivo president Tino Fernandez and the Arsenal hierarchy.

Fernandez admitted last week that attempts to bring Lucas back to Galicia had been “very difficult”.

“Nothing is impossible but we have a limit,” he told Galicia en Goles. “I never mention figures but we have done all that Deportivo can, even making a big effort because of the importance that I believe Lucas can have in this team next season.”

“We will continue to fight because the truth is that he [Perez] is looking forward to joining us.”

However it remains likely that an agreement will eventually be reached between the two parties, with Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger having confirmed that he would allow Lucas to depart so that he could get regular first-team football.

It is understood that Lucas would prefer to join Deportivo, with Newcastle seemingly having pulled out of the race to focus their attention on bringing Joselu in from Stoke.

The Magpies had wanted to take Lucas on loan but as their manager Rafa Benitez recounted last week Arsenal would only consider allowing the player to leave in a permanent transfer.

Fenerbahce have also expressed an interest in the 28-year-old but those links have cooled as it became increasingly apparent Lucas wants to go back to Deportivo, his hometown club where he scored 17 goals in 37 games in the 2015-16 season.

Arsenal are under pressure to trim a first-team squad of 32, from which only Wojciech Szczesny has departed this summer. Kieran Gibbs, Carl Jenkinson, Mathieu Debuchy and Joel Campbell are also available for transfer but as yet the Gunners have struggled to offload them.