Arsenal record signing branded one of worst summer signings
It seems that the jury is back in with regards to Arsenal record signing Nicolas Pepe and it is not good. Talksport ran a piece today claiming that the 24-year-old is one of the worst signings this summer. He is joined by Alex Iwobi, Moise Kean, Oli McBurnie and Danny Drinkwater.
Seems a little harsh to me. He has scored and had two assists and that on the back of no real pre-season. Pepe is having to adapt to a completely new playing culture and even Arsene Wenger has called for patience.
He has not lived up to his £72 Million price tag I will admit and his game has deficiencies. Not tracking back is one such deficiency. But we have seen what he is capable of and it seems to me that he is an easy target.
That said, the pressure is now on Pepe, he does have to start producing and soon otherwise the criticism of him will increase. Having a huge price tag can be an albatross around one’s neck and Pepe is starting to feel that burden.
Going forward and terrorising opposition defences is Pepe’s day job but he also has to learn to trackback. He does not assist the midfield or defence when the ball is lost and that he can change quickly.
Goals and assists will come, he did too well in France and has shown enough in England to see that he is top quality. We just need to see it consistently.
LDDWWWDWW…
Pepe will come good..
How do you categorize flop?
The only thing lacking in his game at the moment is goal..
Bro check his stats this season.
Chances created…..
Touches……
Takes ons…..
Duels won……
Ground covered…..
WHOSCORED.COM RATES HIM 7:20
higher than Zaha, pulicic, James etc….
Ridiculous to judge him just yet, but thus far, and with the price tag, he his the biggest flop of the season. What is worrying, is that I am not really seeing anything to suggest he’ll turn his form around anytime soon. Even Saka is getting more minutes than Pepe these days!
Iwobi definitely .
I know you said this for comments but he is not our player . He has 2 goals and 1 assist in 8 games which he started 4 and yet he is flop . I sorry people just hate this boy for no reason . Last season he had 9 assists and 6 goals and you still moaned . Pepe cost 72 million and has started every single game , what has Zaha done this season . Yet your darling is untouchable
I answered the articles question a who as been the worse ,so I picked Iwobi .
they dislike him because his stats and contributions were better than the “walkie talkie doll” wearing no 10 on a red and white shirt!
why bother, Iwobi is not our player anymore.we have to be bothered about those getting paid thousands each week to use the club gym and washrooms only
Absolutely ridiculous to judge a man on 8 games.And people forget that he has a goal and 2 assists already.Many people will say the goal was a penalty,but to get a penalty right with the amount of pressure the team was on at that particular point is not a joke.
Agreed, too early to judge. May need some time out of the spotlight to get his confidence back.
Come on now, it is too early to ask this question!
Right one, is : Was Pepe right player to bring?
I said it over and over in July even for Zaha. Sign young player ready to burst as “Osimhen”, 12M, Lille did, and once more Mr Wenger tried to bring, rated too expensive for an under 17 world champion with Nigeria,no pro football…
Replacing Pepe at Lille 8 goals in 8 french ligue games!
Pepe needs time to adapt to EPL, send him out a loan would have been best as Saliba but in EPl team such as Wolves, Palace where Zaha can play 9 or on other flank, Everton, Leicester, Westham or Southampton.
As Vandjik, Lukaku…- or Zaha who could be in any top 6 team this season…
Allows to take that pressure off, on a forward/striker mainly, play with more freedom and focus in order to adapt faster.
That price tag is not helping Pepe at all, with high expectations, now.
He is not ready nor his flank really functions; mom not chasing his direct opponent and people take it on (Niles played as a) RB!
Bellerin will be in same mess if Pepe not tracking his LB.
Chambers did more cross and was more present attacking as a RB than Pepe.
Nelson is way more efficient as he chases, switches, comes back in middle shoots, scores, delivers. Way more intensity because he is running, not Pepe!
Common sense!
He is coming in to a new league with no preseason at either Lille or Arsenal and he should have been eased in at a much slower pace. We gooners also praaised him too much after he dribbled past VVD with ease and that must have added to pressure on top of his price tag everyone keeps bringing up. Europa and Cup games are ideal platforms that can help him settle, or a longer run in EPL where he will learn to swim with the sharks.
He has talent and the coach just work on his strengths instead of pushing him to do what is not his game, that is defence. It’s a little too early to judge him in any case
Couldn’t agree more. But come again, you know how our fans praise or criticise the players 😁. What is more important is I think about the point of using 3 attackers but with the way we play. Yes, it looks so promising as we are in the third and only one point away from City. But does it reflect in how we play? Even at home, we didn’t look that strong anymore. Just like our last game, 12 shots but only 2 on target?
I hear ya and cannot disagree with you. We are playing anti-football at the moment and Emery will do well to listen to Wenger and play attractive football that is our DNA
Ridiculous assumption but obviously a clickbait question posed by Talk Shite, which is the premise of the radio station, pure clickbait radio, ignore.
I would have phoned the station if I’d heard the question and asked them how long did it take for Bergkamp and Henry to get going, but that wouldn’t suit their narrative as they always ask controversial questions rather than debate without an agenda.
👍
it is too early to judge pepe even wen we all know that he is a very good player. He has shows some good qualities. No one can compares him with this young players. This is my problems with Arsenal fans, they don’t allow players to settle down n do the job. Pls let’s support him so that our team can progress.
Greetings Family! l believe Pepe will come good soon let us all remember how long it took Henry,Berkamp etc to start scoring…let us be patient with him am convinced it was a good buy…you can tell by the body and leg works.
561 minutes on the pitch, in a new league, new country, new language, new team mates, poor support from fullbacks in a (currently) poorly balanced squad – still has 1 penalty scored, 7 shots on target, 2 assists, created 3 big chances, 5 through balls and already completed the most dribbles in the league so far. Yet here we are asking if he was the worst signing of the summer?
Behave would ya 😂
most dribbles in the leaugue. really? when?
7 shots on target?
He’s averaging 3.8 dribbles a game so far….. More than anyone else 🤷♂️
According to the official PL site he has taken 21 shots in the league so far – 7 shots on target, 9 off target.
Give him time to settle and the squad to become as balanced as it has been in the UEL/Cup and he will be well away imo
dribbling just for the sake of dribbling or having an end product to it. stats can sometimes be truly misleading.how many of those 21 shots were threatening! he is a 70 mill pound pound. he needs to start producing the goods.
That’s stats are just to show us that he is coming around, albeit a bit slow for our liking.
This is one of the most irrelevant articles I have read. If the question has any relevance it would be at the end of the season. Bergkamp, Henry and many others took time to adjust. At Liverpool Firmino looked rubbish in his first season. In fact there are many, many players who had to adjust. It takes time because life is real and not just a made up head trip. Unnecessary article.
Actually Talksport aka Adrian Durham is so ‘head up his own arse’ that I don’t listen any more. He is basically pure verbal vomit.
Its the fact his shooting has been abysmal, cant even generate any power behind his shots. Has one good leg and the other being a burden. He struggle on and off the ball and our kids have shown more composure and they have no league experience of any kind. The French league is more competitive than the under 21’s. Pepe failing could be a blessing in disguise if we play this for the rest of the season 4 2 3 1 . Leno Bellerin Holding Luiz/Mustafi Tierney Chambers Guendouzi Lacazette (false 9 ) Martinilli Saka Abameyang (free role poacher) . Then you have Willock and Ceballos and Pepe on the bench. Torriera Xhaka are poor and can be sold ?
no maybe Xhaka.
I wouldn’t take a blind bit of notice to a cheap radio station with the worst, dumb, bias, unknowledgeable presenters on the planet. Do what I do, don’t waste your time listening. When Pepe settles in, builds up his confidence, he’ll be a player, no doubts, but the fans have to stay with him.
You’re back!! 🙂 How was Thailand, Kenny?
Fantastic thank you Sue, ending up staying for six weeks, feel like going back with this ridiculous International break. Thought I’d missed it, now their having another, unreal. Watched all the games out there, how was Sokratis pass out the box against Watford treated on Just Arsenal Sue. I slung my drink up in the air, soaked everyone, couldn’t believe it. All Arsenal fans, they understood.
Good to hear!! I know, it drives me crazy, there’s too many, too close together!!
Oh that Watford game, Kenny, was awful… you can imagine what it was like on here, everyone was going mental & rightly so!! Definitely one to forget!
Hopefully things should improve after the break (notice I said ‘should’ 😄) 🤞
Dude is like a spectator, even with the ball, one dimensional, a overhyped dud. Defenders already have him sussed. The fact that off the ball he is a zombie, not knowing what to do, says it all…
The number of pressed sequences – those where the opposition has three or fewer passes in a sequence, and the sequence ends within 40 metres of their own goal is a set of stats that clubs use to consider how well teams press.
Arsenal need to be averaging 13 per game. I dont know what it is right now but the young ones like Saka Nelson Willock are doing these to the tee and rewarding themselves with creating chances and scoring goals.
Pepe has to work on what he is good at, get the confidence to bring it out.
But to survive in this league, as a team and as players, you need to be able to win the ball back higher up the pitch.
Those waiting for pepe to adapt to epl and improve his game may have to eait for ever.
The guy is avarage at best. Lile has done a good business dumping pepe on us after 1 or 2 good season.
Lile went and replaced him with Osimhen who i even rate more than pepe.
Osimhen has scored 8 goals so far both in the champions league and French league.
Lets just admit that arsenal have wasted too much money on an average player instead asking for more time for him to adapt and improve.
A player of 72mil is not expected to take up to a whole season to adapt to any league.
Those comparing him with henry and bergkamp should remember that both henry and bergkamp didnt cost arsenal up to half the amount we purchased pepe.
I just hope pepe comes good and bring back those brilliant moments at Lile. If not, the board my find it reluctant to release such amount of cash for emery and his crew to purchase a single player in the future.
The Arsenal winger, signed from Lille in the summer, is a “fan of football”, something Campos believes is vital.
“In my opinion one of the characteristics of a top, top player is that they like football. I remember working with Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe. They know everything about football. Mbappe knew all the results of the second division in France.
“Nicolas Pepe is like that. Heʼs another example of the importance of a player liking football. After a game he watches the whole game again two times, to make himself more perfect.”
A big NO
He will come good
Give Pepe le Pew some time, plenty of our greatest players took time…………….the cream will eventually come to the top !
If I’m asking 72 million for my service. What do you expecting from me after paid? Patient? You are the good Lord! Definitely there will be no trophies for this season too.
Like so many others who have joined Arsenal over the years Pepe came with a reputation that just hasn`t held water so far. Like Ozil he shows little if any interest in putting his head down and proving his worth and my gut feeling is this won`t change: ,like Ozil, he may have shots of inspiration from time to time just to keep us guessing. I think he will see out the season but, unless my gut feeling is wrong we could be stuck with another lemon.
This can’t be real! Leave the guy alone, this is not FIFA video game. He is a Young boy adapting to life at Arsenal and in England.
You guys are the reason the team can’t improve!