Nicolas Pepe is looking likely to be leaving Arsenal this summer.
On Friday, Mikel Arteta issued an ominous ‘anything can happen’ response when asked about the Ivory Coast international potentially being offloaded.
This came in the same week as Nice Matin, as covered by HITC Sport, reported that the 27-year-old wanted to leave Arsenal, amid speculation of a return to Ligue 1.
Pepe is the Gunners’ most expensive signing of all time, following a £72 million transfer from Lille under Unai Emery three years ago.
After being sacked by Arsenal, Emery admitted that he actually wanted a different player – and that man, unfortunately for the North Londoners, is ripping up the Premier League right now.
Emery revealed via Goal in 2020 that he was in favour of signing Wilfried Zaha of Crystal Palace instead of Pepe and, well, perhaps the Spanish manager would’ve been justified in that transfer.
That’s because Zaha is enjoying a furious start to this Premier League campaign, netting three goals in as many games thus far.
On Saturday, the former Manchester United winger scored twice in a 3-1 victory over Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa.
And it’s very possible that Arsenal could’ve signed him because the Londoner is a lifelong supporter of the Emirates Stadium outfit.
The 29-year-old would’ve only been 26 when Raul Sanllehi signed Pepe for the Gunners and based on his resurgent form, coupled with the likelyhood of the Ivorian leaving, well you could definitely argue that Pepe was much more of a mistake based on who they could’ve had instead.
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