Former Premier League striker Frank McAvennie insists Nicolas Pepe never looked good enough to be an Arsenal player from the start of his spell at the club.
Arsenal landed the Ivorian for a record fee in 2019 after being the top scorer at Lille in France in the previous campaign.
Pepe arrived under Unai Emery and Arsenal hoped he would deliver for them as a club, but that never happened.
He struggled under Emery and Mikel Arteta. The latter did all he could to help the winger, but nothing worked.
Pepe went on loan to Nice last season and flopped. Arsenal is now contemplating ending his contract early so he can leave, but McAvennie insists he is not a player that should have been signed in the first place.
He tells Football Insider:
“Whoever bought him should be sacked.
“I looked at him right away and I could not see it. I do not see the £72m player.
“It is very similar to Harry Maguire, he was not worth £80m and Pepe is the same.
“[Virgil] Van Dijk you could understand the price because he completely transformed Liverpool. Pepe has not had any kind of form at all at Arsenal really.“
Just Arsenal Opinion
It is very hard to understand why those who decided to sign Pepe made that decision because the attacker struggled from the beginning of his spell at the club.
However, the key now is to offload him and move on with much better players in the squad.
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This seem a judgement in hindsight to me. What if Van Dijk had not “transformed” Liverpool…
Not what if matters it’s what is that’s important, you could say it about any player what if Messi or Ronaldo came to arsenal all then years ago, what if halland didn’t come to City would arsenal be Champions?
McAvennie sir, the bozzo who sanctioned this atrocity of a deal has long been dismissed.Thanks for your open secret of a wisdom even if invalid.
I think whoever signed him was sacked!
😊
Some where, there is a player in there.
No problem, Raúl Sanllehí left Arsenal in August 2020. There are still many questions not answered related to his activities.
AFC will forever be slated for signing Pepe (& rightly so) but compared with several other big signings by other Prem clubs (Sancho, to Man U, Lukaku to Chelsea & Richarlason to Spurs (to name but a few) it looks like a good bit of business.
If the player had real ambition by now he would have shown greater value for money both when out on loan and again after his return – he does his case no favours by appearing to say nothing whatsoever about his current predicament. Its for this reason I understand why MA thinks he’s not progressive in terms of bringing any positive energy to the current setup.
Whether UE needs sacking or not [after the fact] I don’t know. What I suspect is this player was lucky in as much as he had hit the jackpot before he merited doing so. Looks to me like no top side – ie challenging for domestic honours – should now want to recruit the player. Many players think they’re smart by hoodwinked the arsenal until they look back on their folly and wonder why they leave no legacy, no memory they disappear from the radar – which I exactly what i think will be the result
here. Football fans are most opiniated and mine is the sooner he goes the better so as someone else can contribute to what has become a team with increasing global appeal, one that’s finding its way again in terms of setting the bar higher once again. No good lookin back crying over unai’s pepe purchase, not at this juncture – on that note didn’t he bring us Saliba? Regardless – our energies are best concentrated on what’s MA is doing and what progress is being made moving forwards.
UE was entirely innocent and instead of Pepe xx wanted Zaha.The fraudulent Sanllehi was theguilty man who foisted Pepe on us.Sanllehi was summarily dismissed andleft our employ not long after wards.
Thanks JF – I completely overlooked Sanllehi’s involvement in terms as holding responsiblility for the purse – inadvertantly i thought it Unai who might be fully responsible. *My error.
Yes, Pepe did not fit into Arsenal, but how are mine sure he’s not going to be better than Havertz!!!
I thought these pundits were supposed to do some sort of research before they make statements. If McAvennie had he would have known that Sanllehi who effectively brought Pepe has been long gone.
So it’s hard to understand why, apparently. Not if you know about thecorrupt profit fraudulently made by the suddenly sacked individual who personallypfofited from this club andteam harming deal. Eh Sanllehi?
Why is everyone blaming Emery? when he was on the record as saying he wanted Zaha but Sanllehi was the one that bought Pepe instead.
If he’s not good enough just let him move on and stop crying over spilt milk .we have trophies to win let’s get on with it.
He will actually turn out to be better than Havertz
Think you’ll find it was Raul Sanllehi who rubber stamped some very dubious transfers including Pepe. Perhaps you should dive in a bit deeper to learn what that conman was up to. He makes George Graham and his brown envelopes look like pocket money.