‘No more Space for you again’: Arteta got Angry with £60M Arsenal player yesterday – He will now leave in the summer or His contract will be terminated
Arsenal winger has been ‘overtaken by several players’ at the Emirates, journalist Paul Brown has informed GIVEMESPORT.
The 27-year-old was brought in for a club-record fee of £72 million from Lille in 2019; however, fell out of favour at the Gunners and is currently at Ligue 1 outfit Nice on loan.
Arsenal latest news – Nicolas Pepe
Lately, The Sun has reported that Arsenal could be set to rip up Pepe’s contract in an attempt to get him off the wage bill at the Emirates, though fear that they might have to pay for him to leave North London.
The Ivory Coast international still has one more year left on his contract at the Gunners to go and there has been little interest from prospective suitors in making a bid.
His current loan club Nice could be a potential option; nevertheless, there has been no suggestion that they would be willing to pay a transfer fee to acquire his services permanently.
Pepe is still owed around £7 million in wages by Arsenal and the Premier League leaders are resigned to paying some sort of fee to terminate his deal.
What has Paul Brown said about Nicolas Pepe?
Journalist Brown has stated that Pepe has fallen down the pecking order at Arsenal and thinks there has always been a lingering inconsistency within his performances at the club.
Brown told GMS: “He’s been overtaken by several players now, most of whom are younger and have much brighter futures than he does. There have been little flashes from Pepe from time to time of a decent player there, but just never in the kind of consistent way that Arteta’s demanded.”
What are Nicolas Pepe’s stats this season?
In 2022/23, Pepe has enjoyed a decent season out on loan in France with Nice, scoring eight goals and claiming one assist in 25 appearances across all competitions, as per Transfermarkt.
WhoScored also details that the 27-year-old has had an average of 2.5 shots on goal per match this term, demonstrating his ability to regularly trouble opposition backlines when given a platform to do so.
Unfortunately, his spell at Arsenal just hasn’t worked out in the way that many hoped, though Pepe is a talented player and still has something to offer at a good level.
In the summer, it may be best for the Gunners and Pepe to part ways as he looks extremely unlikely to come back and push the likes of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli for a first-team slot in 2023/24.
