Jeremie Aliadiere has revealed to Goal that he is frustrated by Arsenal winger Nicolas Pepe and believes that his old club spent too much on the star.
The Gunners broke their club record to sign the £72 million attacker from Lille last summer.
But it hasn’t proven to be a brilliant first season at Arsenal for the 24-year-old, who has four goals and six assists in 24 Premier League outings.
It isn’t a bad return but, given the money that was spent on him, a lot more is expected of the Ivory Coast international.
And Aliadiere has suggested that he isn’t looking value for money yet and admitted that a number of aspects of Pepe’s game annoy him.
He told Goal: “When you have Aubameyang on your left and all you have to do is pass the ball in the right spot, and instead cut it back at the wrong time, that bothers me.
“Maybe with confidence, with more games, that will improve. But it’s that sort of thing – when he switches off and seems to lack concentration – that gets to me.
“We don’t have the resources of Manchester City or Paris Saint-Germain, so when we spend big money, we need to make sure we spend it on the right players. You can see he has unbelievable potential, talent and quality. Technically, he can do incredible stuff, but the simple things, sometimes he doesn’t do them spot on.
“That’s why I feel maybe we shouldn’t have spent that much on him.”
The former striker definitely has a point, but Pepe also deserves time.
A lot of brilliant Arsenal players in years gone by didn’t have immediate success in North London, but they developed into superb talents and hopefully in time, Pepe will go that way too.
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