Arsenal ignored advice from own recruitment chief to sign Mustafi and Perez

Arsenal are said to have pushed ahead with signing Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Perez in 2016 despite warnings from their head of recruitment that they were not good enough.

Centre-back Mustafi joined for a fee of around £35m from Valencia while Perez was signed from Deportivo for £17m.

Mustafi has had a mixed spell at the club, having drawn criticism from some supporters for making a number of high-profile mistakes, while Perez made just 11 Premier League appearances for the Gunners before he went back on loan to Deportivo and was then sold permanently to West Ham.

And according to The Athletic Arsenal's head of recruitment at the time, Francis Cagigao, told the club to swerve both players.

Cagigao, who played for Arsenal's youth team under Pat Rice, has been a senior scout at the club for over 23 years, and was responsible for signing the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Hector Bellerin,Robin van Persie, and more recently Gabriel Martinelli.

It appears on this occasion Arsenal ignored his recommendations, however, with Mustafi reportedly not even on his shortlist, and Perez in his eyes "a mid-table player."

Although Perez was clearly a flop, it remains to be seen whether Mustafi will be remembered as a successful signing, with the player having improved recently under Mikel Arteta.

The 27-year-old was frozen out under his previous manager Unai Emery but has played ten times under Arteta, and the German defender has been full of praise for his new boss.

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