BREAKING: Arsenal now want to terminate the contract of £60M star player – player set to follow the likes of Aubameyang and Ozil out of the Club due to his behavior
The Gunners signed the ivory coast international Pepe from Lille for a club-record £72 million (BBC) in 2019. He came to England on the back of a phenomenal season in France, and his arrival raised the excitement levels at Arsenal through the roof.
However, Pepe’s time as a Gunner has been an underwhelming one.
Arsenal could now be forced to terminate Nicolas Pepe’s contract
When Arsenal signed Pepe in 2019, their front three was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette and the Ivorian himself.
If you had that team on EA Sports FIFA, you’re scoring 100 goals a season, but it just didn’t click in real life.
Pepe, branded by Arteta as ‘phenomenal‘, played 112 games for Arsenal, 68 of which came from the start, and was directly involved in 48 goals. That’s not a bad return at all, but when you pay £72 million for a player, you expect a lot more.
Bukayo Saka’s emergence at the same time pushed Pepe out of favour at Arsenal and he left the Gunners to join Nice on loan last summer. He has had a decent campaign there, scoring eight times so far, and the Ligue 1 side are interested in signing him permanently.
However, The Sun reveal today that Nice have shown no desire to pay a transfer fee for Pepe. It has been claimed that Arsenal, who don’t want him either, may have to pay the Ivorian and tear up his contract to get rid of him this summer.
Pepe will have a year left on his £7 million-a-year deal at the end of this season.
Our View:
Since Arteta took charge of Arsenal, the Gunners have allowed Mesut Ozil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alex Lacazette, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Shkodran Mustafi, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Sead Kolasinac, Hector Bellerin, Calum Chambers and David Luiz to walk away for free.
Many of the above-mentioned players’ contracts were terminated – Ozil and Aubameyang are two of the biggest examples of that.
Arsenal fans were under the impression that they no longer had to tear up players’ deals to push them out of the club, but Pepe’s situation could force them to do that again this summer.
That would be a huge shame, and it is something that will definitely annoy Arsenal supporters.
