Raul Sanllehi’s exit has caused a stir amongst the press and social media, but Lille boss Gerard Lopez has moved to rubbish talk of Nicolas Pepe‘s transfer being the reason behind his sacking.
The Spaniard was removed from his post this week in a supposed reshuffle of the backroom, and while all official reports claimed that there was innocent reasoning behind the decision, the rumours began to flow.
Nicolas Pepe was signed for a monster £72 Million only last summer, but Lopez is keen to squash claims that the club are disappointed with their record signing, adding that he believes Pepe’s best is yet to come.
“I know for a fact he has an excellent relationship with the club and they left on excellent terms,” Lopez told Sky Sports.
“There are always going to be stories that try to be interesting, Arsenal are going through a restructuring which is part of what happens. He is a great guy, it is a great club and as far as I can see they both [Arsenal and Sanllehi] respect each other immensely.
“They have a player [Pepe] where people forget his age, and the fact he took one season to click within our system and then became the player which we all know.
“He has had a good second half of the season at Arsenal and he is one of the rare players who can make something happen from nothing.
“The more comfortable he gets at the club, the more he will make things happen so I think the best is yet to come.”
Pepe most certainly has made huge improvements in the latter part of the campaign, although I have to credit Mikel Arteta to a point over his vast upturn in fortunes, and I for one would not complain about our record signing’s debut season at the club.
While his transfer was deemed as somewhat of a risk, it would have been harsh to sack Sanllehi on the back of it, and when you consider our window on a whole last season and in January, we could certainly have done worse with our budget.
Do fans really believe that Pepe’s transfer could have played a major role in Sanllehi’s removal from his role this week?
Patrick
