How much will Nicolas Pepe cost Arsenal in total?
FT Desk
- 29 Aug 2022 21:51 BST
- 3 min read
Nicolas Pepe has agreed to take a 25 per cent pay cut to join Nice on loan. He has still been a monumental waste of money for Arsenal.
There was much excitement among the Gunners' support when they signed Pepe from Lille in the summer of 2019.
While the young Ivorian cost a club record €79 million, eclipsing the previous high of €62m Arsenal paid Borussia Dortmund for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in 2018, he did look like one of the most promising players in the game at the time.
In his final season at Lille, Pepe plundered 23 goals and 11 assists in all competitions at a rate of one every 96 minutes he played, finding the target home and away against Paris Saint-Germain in the process.
Nicolas Pepe's debut season in the Premier League was better than Jadon Sancho's 👀 pic.twitter.com/7wsABp6HEQ
— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) May 9, 2022
Three seasons and just 16 goals later, and Pepe is back in France on a season-long loan to Nice without an option to make the deal permanent - not that the Ligue 1 outfit would fork out even half what Arsenal paid, successful spell or not.
"There were ups and downs," Pepe told Nice's official website of his time at Arsenal. "In the first season I managed to win two titles, the FA Cup and the Community Shield, which is no mean feat.
"The following season, we unfortunately failed in the Europa League semi-final against Villareal. It was more complicated after that, but I only remember the good things."
Perhaps one of the best things about Pepe's time at Arsenal was his pay packet. On €10m a season at the Emirates, the winger earned more than twice as much as the new club captain Martin Odegaard in basic salary.
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How much has Pepe cost Arsenal?
He has agreed to take a 25 per cent pay cut to facilitate his move to the French Riviera, which puts his yearly income at €7.5m. Arsenal and Nice are paying half of that each, so this season Pepe will cost the Gunners €3.75m.
His three full seasons in North London came in at €10m each, so that takes the outlay on his salary up to €33.75m by the end of the current campaign. Add in his 2019 transfer fee and Pepe has cost Arsenal €112.75m.
Twenty-three goals in his final season at Lille, Pepe scored 27 in three campaigns with Arsenal. Admittedly a winger who is expected to make as much as take chances, that still cost the Gunners nearly €4.2m per goal.
