Arsenal feel let down by Nicolas Pepe after the huge amount they invested in the Ivory Coast international a few years ago.
Pepe looked like a hugely promising talent in his time at Lille, but he just didn’t quite have the personality to make it at a big club like Arsenal, according to Jonathan Johnson in his exclusive CaughtOffside column.
The 27-year-old is now on loan at Nice and has shown some signs of improvement, though there probably aren’t too many Arsenal fans desperate to see him back at the Emirates Stadium.
Still, Johnson is unsure about some reports that the Gunners held an internal enquiry over precisely how they ended up paying so much for a signing that didn’t work out.
The French football expert also insists that Arsenal identified a top talent, but perhaps could have done more to work out if he had the right mentality for the move, and that they probably wouldn’t make the same mistake now.
“I can’t say with any certainty that there was anything like an internal enquiry about over-spending on the player, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did feel a bit short-changed. There’s no doubt Pepe had his problems at Arsenal, and I think it’s clear that that’s more down to mentality than ability,” Johnson said.
“He’s a very talented footballer, but if you don’t take your development seriously and take care of yourself in the correct way day after day, then it’s very difficult, especially at a club like Arsenal, to give them what they need, so I think that’s why they feel very let down by that transfer.
“I think they’d say, with hindsight, there was no problem with identifying the talent with Pepe, but it was perhaps a lack of due diligence done on his personality.
“There’s perhaps an interesting parallel with Mykhaylo Mudryk – Arsenal seemingly had him lined up, Shakhtar kept insisting on quite a high asking price, higher than Arsenal valued the player, and had that been a couple of years ago I think Arsenal might have caved to those demands, as they did with Pepe. And we’re seeing now that Mudryk seems to be having some teething problems at Chelsea, he’s been slow to settle and hasn’t really made any impact yet.
“Arsenal were always at the front of the queue with Pepe, but had he perhaps stayed at Lille for a year longer we’d have seen him go somewhere different, but that Lille project is all about extracting the biggest transfer fee possible for their best players, so given that Arsenal gave them what they wanted, that’s why the move happened.”
Pepe was influenced by Aubuemang to not give a 100% performance, and then they formed a troika with Lacazette to undermine the coach and the club. Just give him a free transfer, we don’t miss him.