A transfer that not many thought would happen is set to be completed within the next 48 hours when Arsenal complete the signing of Lille winger Nicolas Pepe, according to multiple credible reports in the media.
Monday afternoon SkySports claimed that Pepe would undergo a medical within the next few days, a little later on the Telegraph more or less made the same claim.
Then Monday evening the regional newspaper La Voix du Nord, who have their headquarters in Lille, claimed that the deal will be completed either on Tuesday or the latest Wednesday.
Now, you will have noticed that I have not linked to any tabloid like the Mail, Daily Star, The Sun, Daily Express or The Mirror and instead provided links to SkySports, the Telegraph and the regional newspaper in Lille.
The reason is to try and ascertain the most credible updates possible and while Sky and the Telegraph do get it wrong on occasions, they are certainly far more credible than the tabloids.
And while I do not know anything about La Voix du Nord I have to believe that the local Lille newspaper is probably the most credible source of the lot.
So basically, there are very strong indications that Nicolas Pepe will complete his transfer to Arsenal by Wednesday at the latest.
La Voix du Nord also claims that the 24-year-old will sign a five-year contract with a salary close to 6 million Euros per year.
I hope he wouldn’t flop, because the risk of signing a non-EPL player is greater. For instance, Nolito, Soldado, Mustafi, Xhaka, Bakayoko, etc
He could become a great signing as well, but that would depend on his skills, adaptation, work rate and how the coach would utilize him. If they expect him to break the opposition’s defense by dribbling forward or racing with the opposition’s fullback, I don’t think Pepe is that type of winger
I predict we would see him cut inside frequently like Sanchez, Martial and Soares. According to the reviews, he played in a 4-2-3-1 formation at Lille, hence that might be why Emery preferred to use that formation in pre-season
Why do you always have negative comments sometimes. See the players you just mentioned. Instead of you to mention players that succeed like Hazard, Drogba, Aubameyang, Giroud, that all came from ligue 1.
Just bitter we didn’t buy his overrated favorite zaha.
Zaha isn’t overrated…. He will come back and punish us this season again as he always does…i still prefer Zaha cause u can’t get the ball from him and he has got massive experience over Pepe.
Let him come and punish… Pepe will be a better signing Bro. Peace
Massive experience of what? Flopping at United? Never scoring more than like 10 goals in a season? Really not worth the money I’d sooner gamble on pepe, @ gotanidea pepe had the 2nd most successfull dribbles in his league last year lol what u on about….
Pepe is very fast, very strong on the ball, top quality first touch, excellent dribbling, very good shooting and passing.
There are not 10 wingers in the world which have such a collection of attributes. The only way he fails is through an unforeseen difficult injury.
No need to compare him to the ultra-slow Xhaka or the all-round mediocre Mustafi.
Yea like Hazard,Agueiro,the DeSilvas,Jesus,De Brune, Mane,etc. For every overseas flops, we have 100s who have succeeded. How many English born players are playing in the PL, probably 25 percent so a majority are successful overseas player
also he is coached by same guy who trained Auba
I wouldn’t call xhaka a flop
Most Gooners would! And do so too! Perhaps you might care to read some of the avalanche of anti Xhaka comments on here?
Very rarely in Europe top 5 leagues you can have 2 Nutmeg Kings on the same team. Last season in EPL nutmeg King was of cos Alex Iwobi and in France was Pepe. Now these 2 play together I can only imagine this can become harlem globetrotter style team. With Nelson and Saka wow
Hopefully all go well by wed and he play on sunday.
I hope we are looking at some other lb, i dont know why celtic guy is taking a whole summer. Is it that, there are no other options or better player?
Bro any news on tierney? It was reported that we were close to agreeing with celtic now news gone quiet. I will be disappointed if we fail to sign hin he seems to be a great talentthat can play for years to come.
Am clueless about the deal as well, i hope we have plan B, LB is a position we must find a replacement for, infact more important than cb as far as am concern.
Yes no doubt LB is a priority along with CB this summer we must get both and i hope we get pepe then we will sign tierney and in the last week we will go out buying CB may be Rugani from juve on loan or may be on installments you never know.. if we sign these three players in coming days then yes may not win epl but we can challenge both liv and man city for large portions of next season
We arsenal fans like to join media to name afew player we might not know about. I dont really know Rugani, all i know is, he isnt juve standard, he couldnt even displace juve old cb, juve sold one of the oldies to give room to young cb but because they(Rugani, Benatia etc), failed, juve have to buy the same player back.
If those are the kind of player we are hoping arsenal recruit, then lets reacess it.
Just because our defence arent reliable we cant just buy any defender available, some are even suggesting Cahil, a pure pensioneer, another Senderos.
I will prefer we trust our defence once more and try look for a real defender from EPL, maybe burnley, or wolve or any good one in midtable team fOr winter or next season
Adajim, with all due respect Daniele Rugani is being kept out of the Juventus team by Leonardo Bonucci and Georgio Chiellini, two of the best CB’s in Europe. In addition Juventus has just signed Matthijs De Ligt from Ajax.
The interesting thing is that Juventus don’t seem to be pushing to sell Rugani, but appear to be looking for a loan deal. They still see he has a future.
If Arsenal can get Rugani on a loan deal with an option to buy (at a set amount with no compulsion) it would be a good deal.
seems no one wants to bid higher for Zaha, everton denied 55m bid and stated they have ended their interest. C.palace must realise their valuation is a joke. I wish both players and club the best as the both got what they deserve,and hopefully our own ‘Hazard’ arrives too.
Zaha and his agent arent smart, before signing the 6yrs renewal a buy out clause should have been inserted, thats what ambitious player does
?.. crystal palace will now regret not selling to us or everton or any other team and next season he will be available at cheap we can sign him next season if he is available the our attack will be complete next season 2020/21 with pepe laca auba and zaha to challenge epl and may be ucl. But this is future thing for now we must sign LB CB and Winger
Really hope Pepe can hit the ground running, if it happens.
As our record signing, it will be nice if we can secure him to a 6-year deal or have an option to extend for another year after 5. Clubs like Spuds and Manure are pretty good at that. Wonder what’s the catch?
We as fan has a part to play in that, we shouldnt expect him to carry the whole team on his head because he is our record signing ,thereby expect him to be god without flaw. I hope he can settle in quickly like Auba and nkt like Ozil. I hope we can oveelook his little flaws and be patient with him
Yeah we probably need some patience for players who come from Ligue 1. Judging from a few past successes like Pires, Drogba and Hazard, it usually takes half a season or more to settle
It makes no sense to pay £80m for a player who has one contract remaining in active football and then he has no resell value how henceforth.Teams have now become money sensitive and it’s no business as usual anymore.
We gotta remember Pépé was Sven number 1 target and this gives me great confidence that he is going to be a superstar. The next Dembele!
Abeg! What is Dembele achievement. He should rather be next Hazard
It’s hard to get Pepe’s record by fluke. What I love is that he is a high intensity player. Over the years the Arsenal style has slowed down somewhat and we so rarely see the intensity that had served us for so many years. A good, fast, direct winger is some sight. Lets hope he is a ‘Gervinho’ with assists and goals. He does look special. As important is Daniele Rugani. A good tall CB from the Juve stable is good news indeed. A CB with a touch of class. He could be the CB that becomes our game changer. We’ll know in a couple of days as the Window closes on the 8th. C’mon you Gunners.
With the way we are recruiting now, we cant settle for some bench warmer again, we cant settle for less. However i wouldnt against a loan deal to try see if he can impress, but i will rather wait for the marque CD signing the club will get for us next season
I really hope this one gets over the line,we look to be finally building a very exciting team again if this one happens it will just be a good central defender needed to bring it all together.With all the young talent at the club starting to emerge with first team possibilities i am looking forward to the new season now,lets hope Emery can strike the right balance and get that defence sorted.
Pepe is an excellent signing! A masterstroke!!
He scored the same amount as Auba last season… imagine him with Auba & Laca!! Mouthwatering, hey QD?! ?
Yes, Sue, we are witnessing the birth of one of the most devastating attacks in the premier league! If Ozil steps up and we offload Xhaka, I believe we won’t be on the receiving end of another humiliating pounding at Anfield. I’ve had just about enough of those.
Yes, had an absolute gutful of those!! Time to be excited, QD!!
actually in Ozil’s best season he had two speedy wingers, one brilliant alexis and one chicken theo with giroud up front. so we can be optimistic of having this kind of front three ozil might recapture his form.
Just read this online – after the 2-1 Emirates Cup defeat to Lyon on Sunday, the boss admitted that there are three more deals in the works – although interestingly suggested there was no room for Celtic left-back Kieran Tierney. Bit weird this one giving how we were chasing him all summer! Surely he can’t be relying on Monreal and Kolasinac in that left back role? We need a LB and RB also! Arsenal should just drop this 27 million price tag for Mustafi and get whatever they can for him and bring in what’s needed and also get rid of Koscielny asap
3 more deals?? Bloody hell, what’s going on?? ? wow, I’m liking this, Kev!!
I know it’s probably a load of crap, but there are reports that Pepe is having his medical today & also pics of him at an airport. Can’t help but get excited, hey?!!
Yes but no room for a LB Sue ? I understand he could be playing the media but this Tierney deal makes me nervous Sue it’s been rambling on too long now and seemingly no breakthrough ? what Airport? Gatwick, Heathrow, Stansted, Luton which eagle eyed detective spotted him ? ?
I don’t understand how UE wanted him though and now all of a sudden he doesn’t?? Could be a load of crap?
Ha well I don’t know, all I saw was some old gal taking a picture of him, with her kids!
So all I’m imagining is… you singing along to Beauty and the Beast in french ???
Better be a load of crap I’ve backed him since the day he arrived not even understanding a word he’s saying ? my French is like del boys utter jibberish ? so you’ve seen it ?
Staying positive, maybe Emery is not including Kieran Tierney, because the deal is already done, just waiting on details to be sorted out with Celtic.
Hopefully Ozziegunner it would be a real shame losing out on a top quality LB! After Ashley Cole left that’s always been a problem area Clichy was error prone as was Gibbs and Andre Santos was useless
?? no, was just going by what you said about it!! I love the cartoon!
There’s hope, Kev.. I mean 25m these days isn’t a great deal.. no doubt we’ll hear something soon.. but he wouldn’t be ready for the start of the season anyway?
How can they value Mustafi more than Tierney Sue? Yes they paid 35 mil for Mustafi but they overpaid by 35 ? I keep getting article after article about Elneny and a dead man god bless him but I think we get the picture now! No but he’ll be ready soon maybe 2 or 3 weeks say a month ? so did I but that french film is pretty good for a subtitles film ?
Going to be a very eventful last few days of the window, Kev. Still time for all sorts to happen yet! Tierney might well happen. Christ I never thought we’d spend £72m on one player, so I’m very optimistic!!
Would say I’d have a butchers, but I don’t really like subtitles ?
Shouldn’t be a problem for you Sue your from an era where silent movies were coming out ??? eventful and stressful ? I would have preferred the 72 mil on the defence but still happy with Pepe he could be our mane who’s always a thorn in our side so maybe he can be a thorn in Liverpool’s side ?
Hahahahaha!!! Very good ?
Oh what I’d give for that to happen…ain’t it about time we had some luck against them?? I hope City do them on Sunday!
You know I’m only winding you up ?? well 9 goals conceded in the last 2 trips let’s not make it 13 or 14 ? it’s very possible Liverpool have been awful pre season Sue ? so you watching the Angers game ?
I’ll find a link & watch it.. looking forward to it, should be a great week for us gooners, Kev ? (and I don’t just mean listening to you singing ?)
Happy days Sue should be good ? oi I can belt out a tune or 2 ??