Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta admits the time was right for the ‘phenomenal’ Nicolas Pepe to move on after the Premier League’s forgotten man sealed a move to Turkish outfit Trabzonspor this week.
Following in the footsteps of Fred, Edin Dzeko, Wilfried Zaha, Cengiz Under and more, the Ivory Coast international joins an increasingly wide-ranging collection of former Premier League players now plying their trade in Turkey’s Super Lig.
Nicolas Pepe, unlike the aforementioned quartet, will not be strutting his stuff in Istanbul this season, however. He instead joins a Trabzonspor side looking to re-claim the title they claimed in 2022 and lost in 2023; the former Lille talisman bringing match-winning potential to a frontline already containing Southampton flop Mislav Orsic and Aston Villa cult hero Trezeguet.
Nicolas Pepe leaves Arsenal for Trabzonspor
Pepe fell out of favour under Mikel Arteta. A forward acquired for £72 million leaving on a free just four years later.
The Arsenal boss had nothing but positive words for the France-born 28-year-old, however, his Gunners decline a byprduct of the remarkable rise of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli over the last few seasons.
“I wasn’t involved in the process of that deal. What I can say about him as a person is he’s a phenomenal boy,” Arteta tells Football London ahead of Sunday’s clash with Everton.
“It’s not his fault the amount of money we paid. When things are not working, you have to move on. It’s no point trying when it’s not working.”
Pepe will be expected to provide plenty of ammunition for Paul Onuachu on the banks of the Black Sea. Like Orsic, the towering, 6ft 7ins targetman leaves Southampton for Turkey having failed to score a single goal for the Saints, Trabzonspor winning the race for Onuachu’s signature after a return to former club Genk hit the buffers.
Another big name arriving in Turkey
“Onuachu was a very intensive file. You should know that Paul absolutely wanted to return,” Genk director Dimitri De Conde tells Tech Talk.
“We were prepared as a club to make Onuachu the biggest incoming transfer for Genk ever, on a financial level. That had all been worked out. But, for Southampton, that would have to be done with an exchange with Joseph Paintsil.
“(Paintsil) wanted to stay, at the end of the day.”
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