Gabby Agbonlahor believes Arsenal will struggle to offload Nicolas Pepe for a good fee as the Ivorian struggles with poor form.
Pepe joined the Gunners in 2019 from Lille for a record fee as they searched for a new winger under Unai Emery.
The Ivorian had been in stunning form at the French club Lille in the previous campaign and Arsenal believed he would take that level of performance with him to the Emirates.
However, he has flattered to deceive since he has been at the Emirates and he now struggles to get into the team.
Mikel Arteta doesn’t fancy him and he hardly impresses when he gets the chance to play for the Gunners.
Arsenal will be happy to sell him, but former Aston Villa man, Agbonlahor, insists they will struggle to achieve that and claims they might have to send him out on loan instead of offloading him permanently.
He tells Football Insider: “The only option for Arsenal is to let him leave on loan. I can’t see any clubs even paying £30million for Pepe.
“He’s just not been consistent enough. But there is a real player in there – he just hasn’t shown it.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Signing Pepe is one of the worst business decisions Arsenal has made recently, and we need to get rid of him.
The attacker has never been of the right standard for the club and it doesn’t seem he will ever find the consistency he needs to thrive at a big side.
First mention it here and someone try to ridicule me.
Send him and loan at the end of the season to a newly promoted team or say Crystal Palace or Southampton, insert in the contract that he starts every game or else the loaning club pays Arsenal say £50,000 for any game he misses and not injured.
He may very well comes alive after a consistent run in a team, remember if he do comes alive we would certainly have a player on our hands.
But maybe am too bold with decisions making
If you are implying that I ridiculed you, then you are mistaken. I said any club that agreed to that clause in a loan deal would be insane, and I gave my reasons why.
Someone help me with the maths here
What newly promoted team wouldn’t want to take a £72, mil player on loan, in some case Nicolas Pepe alone may value more than that entire squad if am not exaggerating.
But am not one to easily give on one, but we owed it to ourselves to exhaust all efforts
I agree with Ad MARTIN that Pepe was the worst business deal for some considerable time , worse even than Ozil , with his totally wasted new contract.
It seems to be Sanllehi who sanctioned that deal and thus Emery was not guilty at all, as he preferred Zaha. It is clear that MA does not rate Pepe and he is right not to, IMO.
How we now get back any REAL money given the collapse in the world market and Pepes continued VERY modest form, is now probably another near write off.
I doubt he will fetch even £18mill these days, approx a quarter of what he first cost us. We do NOT miss you SANLLEHI!
Perhaps send him back to Lille in exchange for Jonathan David? We get a striker and they get back a player who produced in the French league.
Anything to ensure a £72 million transfer isn’t wasted on the bench running out his contract. He just isn’t consistent enough to be a reliable threat or option for us.
Raul’s legacy, like the Denis Suarez loan bust
72 million was always too much for him but let’s put money aside, who wouldn’t need a good player like him as a backup?
I think we should just stop regretting and use him to his full potential. We should also be looking at players who are putting him on the bench, great players (Martinelli and Saka)
yes he has been a bad signing considering the 32m over his valuation we paid forhim at the time with him being valued at 40m.
Its common knowledge that UE wanted a winger and he wanted Zaha.
in comes Derek Trotter aka Raul Sanllehi to sign Pepe on some weird arse deal, saying we needed to be smart in the market due to lack of funds and Palace wanting a fee for Zaha 50m in 1 lump sum, which i can totally understand from a selling clubs perspective.
His price tag is no longer relevant to me, if indeed it ever was, he is part of this squad who are performing well and he could play an important role between now and the end of the season, maybe starting tonight