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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