EXCLUSIVE: Arsenal’s desperate measures to sell €80m flop Pepe

Steve Kay | Editor

Arsenal have slashed their asking price for record signing Nicolas Pepe but they are still struggling to sell the winger, sources have indicated to FootballTransfers.

Pepe signed for Arsenal in the summer of 2019 after a stellar campaign with Lille, but he has failed to live up to his €80 million price tag.

He was loaned out to Ligue 1 side Nice for the 2022/23 season but suffered through a lack of form and injury as he featured 28 times in all competitions for an outfit that also boasted another former Gunner in the form of Aaron Ramsey. He scored eight goals and added two assists for Les Aiglons, who finished mid-table.

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Nice have not made a move to sign the 28-year-old on a permanent basis, so Pepe, who has just a year left on his deal at the Emirates, has returned to Mikel Arteta’s side this summer.

Unsurprisingly, he is seen as surplus to requirements at Arsenal and the Premier League runners-up have reacted by slashing his asking price to €29m (£25m). This is still a figure well about his Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) of €12.5m, which is calculated by FootballTransfers’ in-house algorithm.

Arteta’s club have moved to offer Pepe to a number of their top-flight rivals. The thinking behind this move is that only Premier League teams are likely to be able to take a gamble on a player who has misfired in three successive seasons. It is a plot to try and cut their financial losses.

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Where could Pepe go?

It is unclear where Pepe could wind up at the start of the season. Newcastle were interested last summer but the former Angers player turned them down because he wanted to return to France.

Indeed, it is in Ligue 1 that Pepe sees his future, but the prospect of a team in the country of his birth stumping up the kind of money the Gunners are looking for is remote.

West Ham are known to be looking for a winger and previously enquired about Reiss Nelson, but there is no concrete link between Arsenal’s London rivals and Pepe.