Speaking on his YouTube show, David Ornstein has stated that Arsenal wanted to pay between £40 and £50 million for Nicolas Pepe last summer when they signed him from Lille.
Pepe and his price tag has been a big talking point over the past week after the Ivorian’s controversial red card against Leeds earlier this week.
The journalist was hosting his weekly Q&A show, and understandably, Gunners fans were keen to find out the whole story behind the deal that brought him to the Emirates for £72 million.
“There were definitely concerns at the time inside and outside of Arsenal about that level of expenditure, and there are still to this day.
“Arsenal were smashing their transfer record for a player who had really only had one excellent season, and in the French League.
“As I understand it, their initial valuation for Pepe was around £40 to £50 million, they ended up paying £72 million, so debate will rage for a long time about how they got from A to B.”
Ornstein is right, debate will rage over this for a long time.
Arsenal are apparently doing an internal investigation on the fee that was spent on Pepe, and it would be fascinating to see what conclusions they come to.
It’s one thing for fans to say a player isn’t worth the money paid for him, but when the club are looking into it, you know you’ve got a bad deal.
Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to argue that Pepe has been worth the money, he’s been widely criticised, and he’s barely been in the starting XI this season for Mikel Arteta’s side.
The more modest fee of £40 million would have been a lot more suitable for a player who had only had one good season in France, but somehow the Gunners ended up paying nearly double that.
This may not be the last update we get on Pepe’s fee as the Gunners’ internal investigation into the transfer seems to still be ongoing.
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