A move to the Premier League can often make or break players.
When on the top of their game, Premier League stars are lavished with praise. But for those struggling, the media attention and criticism can be relentless.
It is often one extreme or the other for players, with rival fans ready to pounce on any sniff of a poor performance.
For some, it is what fuels them to be better and many of the world’s best players now find themselves as the face of the Premier League.
But for others, it can crush their confidence and the Premier League is no stranger to players who have been unable to reach their true potential.
That is certainly the case for Nicolas Pepe, who was faced with lofty expectations after completing a £72million move to Arsenal in 2019.
Nicolas Pepe opens up on Arsenal ‘trauma’
Pepe spent four years in North London but was never able to live up to his price tag – something he had no part in deciding.
He scored 27 goals in 112 appearances for the Gunners before falling out of favour under Mikel Arteta and returning to France on loan with Nice.
As quoted by L’Equipe, Pepe has now opened up on his time at Arsenal and revealed that he grew a “disgust” for football.
“At Arsenal, I had suffered a kind of trauma, as if my passion had been ripped away from me, I had a disgust for football,” he said.
“By dint of no longer playing, I wondered why I was doing this job. I doubted myself to the point that I thought about quitting everything.
“I wondered how they could have been so relentless in their attacks on me. They even called me the biggest flop in the history of the Premier League!”
Pepe spent last season at Turkish side Trabzonspor – who he joined from Arsenal for free after having his contract mutually ended.
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