Arteta ready to make bold decision regarding Pepe’s future
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is prepared to make a significant decision regarding the future of Nicolas Pepe, following his return to Emirates Stadium from a season-long loan.
The Daily Mail reports that the Spaniard is now open to terminating Pepe’s contract with the club, with the hope that Sporting Director Edu can secure a transfer for the 28-year-old. However, if necessary, Arteta is ready to take matters into his own hands and force the forward out.
Arsenal are preparing to terminate Nicolas Pepe’s contract. pic.twitter.com/M79mUvdFdN
— Fenerbahçe UK 🇬🇧 (@fenernewsuk) July 24, 2023
Pepe, who signed a £140,000-a-week contract with the North London side in August 2019, only has one year left on his deal. The Ivorian international became the Gunners’ record signing at £72 million.
Despite high expectations, the Ivorian struggled to justify the hefty price tag during his time at the Emirates Stadium, failing to replicate the goal-laden performances from his Ligue 1 campaign with Lille. As a result, Arteta is now determined to offload him permanently in this transfer window.
The decision to omit Pepe from Arsenal’s pre-season tour of the USA underscores Arteta’s firm stance on the matter. Instead of traveling with the squad, the winger has been focusing on improving his fitness at the club’s training ground in London Colney.
With the clock ticking on Pepe’s contract, Arsenal are keen to resolve the situation swiftly. Although the club still owes Lille a percentage of the transfer fee, Arteta’s priority is to secure a deal that would see Pepe leave the club permanently.
The coming weeks will be crucial as Arsenal and Edu work to find a suitable transfer destination for Nicolas Pepe. The club will aim to reach an agreement that benefits all parties involved and allows them to move forward with their squad planning for the upcoming season.
If an offer arrives for the player, then well and good for the club. If it doesn’t then the club will just consider the winger as part of the history and move on from this chapter.
Writer – Yash Bisht
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
Why not sell Pepe to the Saudis, with reports that a deal with Sheffield for one of our defender almost completed, some £5mill touted.
That would still leave us with a massive deck of nine players to clear.
This shows how incompetent we are when it comes to transfer market. When all EPL are successfully throwing their deadwoods to Saudi, Arsenal are finding it difficult to let one player move. Pepe for instance is only 27, is superstar (though out of form) and still difficult to find any suitors. Our buys are also overly inflated as we paid over the odds for both rice, and Havertz and may be for Timber showcasing our failure in transfer market at both ends.
So it’s our fault and incompetence that no one wants to buy any of our players? What an absolutely ridiculous concept!
Had we signed the player that Emery wanted in the first place i.e. Wilfred Zaha the issue of Nicholas Pepe would never have existed.
It is Arsenal’s incompetence – should I say it WAS Arsenal’s incompetence. More specifically it was Raul Sanllehi’s incompetence to ignore Emery and sign a player he didn’t want to begin with.
I feel bad for Pepe who should have stayed with Lille and never come here.
I get the same vibe with Balogun who did well in a weak league but I suspect will struggle badly when given the opportunity to step up..
I club in not run by one manager and one owner. There are wholesome team operating in each and every sector including transfer business. Last yr we received offer of 35mil for ESR, 15 mil for AMN but we didn’t sold out of greediness or any other purpose. AMN already left for free and may be in a yr or two ESR may leave for free also and it will happen to lot others. Its not only players job to find new club but its also club responsibility to persuade other club to buy your players. The data speaks for itself and we have all seen that our most expensive buys like pepe, auba, laca, ozil, mustafi didn’t justified their peice tag while plethora of world class players left for free at the other end. However its true that Our club overall is heading in right direction and is most valuable club in the world but transfer business is still utterly disappointing.
Nothing ridiculous here mate!
If we are the ones climbing on the rooftop telling everyone how useless our player is, why should we expect any decent offers for the very same player?
@Eddie
That’s such juvenile reasoning. So you think clubs are out there reading comments and listening to Arsenal fans on places like “Just Arsenal” etc talk sh!t about our players? Then they use that very objective information and data to make conclusions on whether to spend £Millions on such a player?
So then that leaves me with a simple question, why do clubs even waste time and £millions on SCOUTS around the world when they save all that money? Get rid of scouts and depend on fans opinion on twitter and fans forums.. Isn’t it?
I just think that fans take themselves too seriously thinking they have all this influence on things like club player Deals.
At worst a backup to Saka. Cup games, late game substitutions, occasional game to rest Saka.
He never pulled up any trees, but his goals and assists CV better than Nelson.
Maybe some cameos to drum up interest in January perhaps. Anything better than cutting ties on a free with Pepe; he can still contribute albeit not at a level we desire.
When MA came to Arsenal he immediately didn’t like Pepe and nothing was going to change. Fine you the new manager and you don’t want him around, fair enough.
So why take this long to get rid of him?? If he had put him up for sale immediately while he was still regarded as decent and accepted 20m or even less then we wouldn’t be where we are now. Instead it’s been a few years of showing how much you think he is rubbish and then wonder why no-one will buy him years down the line……shocked really!
In 2021 if we had put Pepe up for sale we definitely would’ve had a taker at 20m. Inaction is an action!
First of all, MA didn’t sign Pepe and, as history shows us, if you don’t impress your out.
But come on, are we really saying that Pepe has been given a real chances to prove himself?
How many games did he feature on a consistent basis, like, for instance, Willian?
If it’s MA ‘s wish to let him go, then so be it, but it does leave a little bit of a sour taste for me, when others have had more opportunities to prove themselves to our manager.
Ken
No, he wasn’t afforded the chances others got, his return wasn’t too bad either in his first campaign, if there’s ever a player that has been affected by their price tag is Nickolos Pepe.
Its a shame as the lad has absolutely nothing to do with his price tag.
TBF I don’t think we are paying any where near the reported 74 million as it was spread over 3-4 years and had alot of performance related clauses in it ,that’s what I read anyway .
But when you factor in his wages for not playing then it probably goes up quite abit