Report: ‘Phenomenal’ Arsenal star’s contract may get terminated soon, Arteta doesn’t want him
Although Nicolas Pepe remains a member of Arsenal, it is evident that he does not have a place in the club’s future plans.
Arsenal broke their transfer record by paying £72 million (according to the BBC) to acquire Pepe from Lille in 2019, following a remarkable season in France that generated great anticipation among Arsenal fans.
Unfortunately, Pepe’s performance at Arsenal has been less than impressive.
Arsenal could be forced to terminate Nicolas Pepe’s contract
In 2019, Arsenal had a formidable attacking trio comprising of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, and Nicolas Pepe.
On a virtual platform like EA Sports FIFA, this team would score 100 goals in a season, but unfortunately, things didn’t pan out that way in reality.
Pepe was initially praised by Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, who called him “phenomenal”. He played a total of 112 games for the club, with 68 of them being from the starting lineup, and contributed to 48 goals.
While this is not a poor return, it falls short of expectations for a player who was acquired for a club-record fee of £72 million.
Additionally, Bukayo Saka’s emergence as a promising young talent at the same time pushed Pepe out of favour at Arsenal.
Consequently, he was loaned out to Nice last summer where he has had a decent season, scoring eight goals so far. There is now interest from the Ligue 1 side in signing Pepe permanently.
According to The Sun’s report today, Nice have not expressed any interest in paying a transfer fee to sign Pepe on a permanent basis. Meanwhile, Arsenal is also keen to move on from the Ivorian player. It is suggested that the Gunners may have to pay Pepe and cancel his contract to facilitate his departure during the upcoming summer transfer window.
Pepe is currently earning £7 million per year, and his contract with Arsenal is set to expire in one year’s time.
Since Mikel Arteta took over as Arsenal manager, the club has allowed several players, including Mesut Ozil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alex Lacazette, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Shkodran Mustafi, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Sead Kolasinac, Hector Bellerin, Calum Chambers, and David Luiz, to depart the club on a free transfer. In many cases, the club terminated the contracts of these players.
Arsenal fans had hoped that the club would not need to resort to terminating players’ contracts to move them out of the club.
However, Pepe’s situation may force the club to do so again this summer. If this were to happen, it would likely disappoint and frustrate Arsenal supporters.
Report: ‘Phenomenal’ Arsenal star’s contract may get terminated soon, Arteta doesn’t want him
