Unai Emery says that new club record signing Nicolas Pepe will add great qualities to the Arsenal attack, and says that the Gunners beat off some of Europe’s biggest sides to bring him to North London.
The Ivorian international’s capture was finally confirmed today, and the prospect of him linking up with the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Mesut Ozil and Carl Jenkinson is a mouth-watering one.
The Spaniard expressed his delight over the signing to the official site, saying, “Nicolas is a highly-rated and talented winger who was wanted by many of the top teams in Europe.
“Signing a top-class winger has been one of our key objectives in this transfer window and I’m delighted he’s joining.
“He will add pace, power and creativity, with the aim of bringing more goals to our team.”
Pepe will wear the number 19, and he too was pleased with the decision he made.
“We talked and thought a lot about it,” he said.
“”It was at the time of the CAN [Africa Cup of Nations] as well, we thought a lot during, before and after the CAN.
“It was important to make the right decision and I am convinced that Arsenal is the right choice.”
Carl Jenkinson? I mean, I like him, but why that association is so mouth-watering?
Joke mate
It was for the lols I do believe.
It made me “lol” so it worked!
It was a joke mate!
But honestly, I feel that Laca and Auba made the difference in us getting him to sign! How exciting
Carl will teach him what it means to be a gooner, whilst his dad will teach him how to ‘turn around.’
Every now and then I fall apart when I hear people not fully appreciating the Corporal.
I agree. On what is (hopefully) a great day for Arsenal with our new record signing, I actually thought trying to be funny at expense of Jenks was unnecessary and poor form. 🙁 Otherwise a good day and #COYG.
Jenks would love the banter pal!
Woooosh
Again welcome to our new no.19.
Now guess we’ll go after Tierney, wonder what the plan is for CB.
Agreed. Good signing. We now need to add some steel…the type of player that has opponents second guessing when they think they can have a go at us.
Koscienly would be great, he’s a beast of a defender and I hear he might be available
I was thinking rather of someone in the mould of Tony Adams….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htwUEPofRjw
Arseblokes are already having Argasams all over the place, leave some dream for another day..
To late I Argasamed in your face…..
Rumour is Umtiti signing is in the pipeline. Deal could be announced as early as Wednesday.
“the Gunners beat off some of Europe’s biggest sides”
Fnarr
The things we do to make a signing…
If that’s what it takes
He better be worth it
Biggest in what sense
Poetry slam 😀 : “the prospect of him linking up with the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Mesut Ozil and Carl Jenkinson is a mouth-watering one.”
Anyone else think Aubameyang might be sold? I don’t necessarily want him to be. With Nketiah, Martinelli, Pepe, even Nelson being able to play out wide or as a foil for Lacazette, we seem to be stacking our options in those areas of the pitch. And because we can’t sell Ozil or Mhicki, guaranteeing them game time, or even being in a position to offer it seems tricky and if we were ever going to sell him, with 2 years left, on nearly 200k…this is probably the best window to do it in. If we got a good fee and… Read more »
That would be terrible. We should cut our losses with Mhki and move him on, even on a free!
I’ve not been a great fan of Ozil for a long time but I think, with Pepe and Ceballos, as well as a solid CB, Ozil can concentrate on the one thing he does best and world class at – create, without worrying about defending much. Controversy warning, I would be happy to sacrifice Xhaka as well to balance the books if required but certainly Auba!
One solid CB and nobody else defend? League one strikers will turn around his with two passes, easy.
I cannot imagine for a second that Aubameyang will be sold. A front 3 of Pepe, Aub and Lacazette will be very formidable
As unpopular as selling Aubameyang would be, I see some logic in it, even though just like Ourchildrens’ world above, I dont want it. I love Aubamayang to be honest. He seems like a truly decent guy in addition to being world class. But there’s the thing. We are clearly building not for the coming season, but the one after. We are bringing in youth: Saliba, Martinelli, Pepe, Ceballos . This season we aren’t going to knock off both Liverpool or City to the title, but reaching the CL is a clear must. If we get a CB as solid… Read more »
You dared me to vote you down, so I won’t. Excellent reverse psychology. I’d say whatever our goals are, most people disagree that selling Auba helps achieve any of those for this year. Unless you’re worried about Silent Stan’s (Josh’s?) wallet. Otherwise, why sell him? Btw, we only have Ceballos for a year.
Yeah but if we show we’re up and coming, Ceballos might want to stick around 😉
you are ok with him maybe wanting to stick around, but dont mind us selling auba because CL is a shoe in without him?
How many years is it gonna take for you guys to realize Arsenal always has firepower up front, but are porous at the back? I was around when George graham built an iron wall defense that allowed wenger to go on a run. Defense is the foundation on which everything is built. If you listen to everyone here masturbate over how good the young kids are, you’d have to believe we can sacrifice some offense to get rid of our impossibly incompetent back line. Yeah this new kid might be the next Henry, but when are we getting the next… Read more »
Get it through your thick head
We ain’t poor no more
Is it Ceballos who will give you the number of goals Auba scores? Some fans celebrated Pepe so much they are drunk.
If you get the worldclass CB, wouldn’t you need a worlclass CF?
There is not any logic in selling our leading scorer and Golden Boots winner. As we can see we are not short of money
A better way to be in our children’s world is to think we will sign Umtiti and Varane.
I have had a nagging feeling over the last few days, certainly with the additions to our midfield and attack (Not just Pepe but with talk about Khedira). I actually called a Manure supporting friend last night and suggested that we might have sold them Auba already and keeping it quiet until the end of the window. Is Everton Soares still coming? he supposedly had a medical, not sure the truth in that. I don’t think many would complain should we end up signing Cebellos, Pepe, Rugani, Tierney, Martinelli and potentially a new left winger and all we lose in… Read more »
I think the very idea that we would sell Aubamayang is ridiculous.
It would never happen, and certainly not to a club we are competing with for the top 4.
It’s foolish talk.
Selling Auba would destroy any goodwill built up so far in this transfer window. Also, moving him in the few days left without any gossips spreading beforehand seems unlikely.
However, would I be surprised? Probably not. I am more surprised that Arsenal would splash £72m on a winger without recouping elsewhere, such has my experience taught me. 🙁
That’s our most lethal and clinical finisher man, no way he’s been sold this summer!
“We have a lot to offer to a player. I don’t feel in disadvantage with anybody… Really, I feel like I have a lot of ammunition when I talk with players to engage them in our project.”
– Raul ‘outsmartDmarket’ Sanllehi (May 22, 2019)
Raul definitely firing kill shots with this signing
The signing of Pépé is more than just a transfer by my reckoning; it seems to be a defining moment for our club. A paradigm shift. It means we are once again an enticing prospect for top talents. It is one thing to sign a Saliba – a young player with lots of potential; it is another thing entirely to sign a player at 24, and one who’s just had a break out season in one of the five top leagues in Europe…without CL football. The structure of the fee is another reason to be excited. It is the stuff… Read more »
I love the Jenks comments, I did LOL and kinda choked at the same time – still chuckling – great but of humour
As much as the prospect of seeing Pepe line up with Auba and Laca in our starting 11, I don’t see it happening under Emery unless it is a forced one. In all though it adds to a healthy squad depth. This is a good time to be an arsenal fan. I can look at the season with optimism.
Of course he will play the 3 together. I cannot think why you would doubt it
Because it took him a while to play Laca and Auba together
Pepe is a winger by trade. Auba and Laca are both centre forwards by trade… But now he’s happy to put auba on the wing, that’ll leave us with 2 wingers and a centre forward. Quick maths
I think Pepe could bring out the best in Corp Jenkinson. Surely this is the final part of Emery’s master plan?
Can not WAIT to see the Jenko-Pepe linkup on the right!!
Lol, I see what you did up there blogs…… linking up with Jenks would really be a mouthwatering prospect
More a dry mouth prospect really.
You know, it kinda makes me think the £90m offer to Lemar a couple of seasons ago was actually real. Makes me believe the club when they talk about only wanting to add quality that will improve the team. Now, we can all be excited about the new season even without acquiring a new CB, I hope we get one though.
I’m not sure that I’d describe linking up Pepe with Jenkinson as ” mouth-watering” … but who knows?
A touch from a living invincible legend.. thanks Kolo Kolo Kolo Kolo Kolo Kolo Toure
I can see Wenger coming out and saying “Well,,,, you know,,,, we were looking at Pepe when he was 3,,,, we almost signed him, but we had Nicolas Benter who was showing great potential.”
Typical Wenger.
I love you too Pepsi
I have mixed feelings with this buy. I’m elated that we got Pepe. But I’m a bit cautious that we haven’t done ourselves in a little with such a big purchase price that will potentially weigh on future summers (along with Saliba). That’s potentially 20m+ every summer transfer out of the kitty off the back. Could we have had an adequate enough solution with a smaller purchase in say Ziyech at 24m (plus add ons) but with some discounts if we could say hawk Mavropanos on loan to them (with De Ligt sold) This is not to say I’m not… Read more »
You’re dealing in fantasy mate. Deal in reality – we have signed Pepe. A few weeks or months ago nobody thought this was possible, I give you what we all thought was a very real prospect of signing Ryan Fraser. The point of the structure of payments, I am guessing, is why our budget was ‘trimmed’ or altered by not getting Champions League. Imagine what Raul might have pulled out of his bag of tricks with those extra CL fazools. This will be off set against future earnings, which hopefully include CL money, future player sales from better managed squad… Read more »
There will be no problem with future signings. We already have the money to pay for him outright. We just financed the deal that way in order to keep the deficit low and bring in more players without leaving a massive hole in the transfer coffers. Smart financial manouvre, as was leaking the ‘fake’ 45m budget cap. The club know that both the media and joe public are a ‘couple of slices short’ so naturally they played on that. Nobody ever tells anyone how much they have to spend in the market. Thats just fucking stupid. I dont even understand… Read more »
You need to read the excellent report on the club’s financial position from The Arsenal Supporter’s Trust – it’s on their website. As to “We already have the money to pay for him outright…” – read the report and see just how tight money is. Excluding the straight loan of Ceballos for which we only have to pay his wages, the reason why Pepe’s transfer and the others are on instalments – often extended instalments, a variety of add-ons (read: deferred payments), and a loan back of Saliba is because we don’t have large cash reserves available for transfers. Yes,… Read more »
Yeah but ziyech is more of a ten and we need more pace than he overs. Ziyech is very similar to ozil and mychi
Now it’s time for a CB
Yesterday’s game. I thought Thompson did alright. Again don’t see the rush to get Tierney at expense of money that could be sunk into a better Cback. Monreal is a waning force but with Kolasinac, we are OK for this season. AMN had some really good moves. I don’t understand all these numpties going on about his Natural position. Rback is his natural position. So much recovery pace and strength. Just needs a bit more experience which will come.BUT love how compose he always is (which is also his weakness…too composed at times). That penalty was cool bordering on flagrant.… Read more »
You are literally the only person I have heard say AMN is a natural right back. Deluded.
Will be interesting to see how we line up with him in the team. I suspect that if Aubameyang moves to the wing, we might swap to a 4-3-3 formation, which would suit him more than a 4-2-3-1 where the wingers are further from goal. But where does that leave Ozil? A change of position to 8 could be possible but it’s not a perfect fit either.
The reason we got him is that we were prepared to pay all that money to both his club an the agents (yes, plural). Really hate to say that, but it was Sp*rs who signed the star of Ligue 1 this summer. If you look at the numbers, Ndombélé is a world-class player. Pepe has had a brilliant season as a winger/stricker in a counterattacking team. Not a lot of difficult goals or assists in there where he had to create something against a tight defense (which will happen a lot at Arsenal). Even in today’s market, he is not… Read more »
Agree that Ndombele is class, but I don’t understand the Pepe criticism really. One of the best tactics against tight defences is having quick ball carriers who can disrupt the opposition shape. That’s exactly what Pepe can bring to the team, and we badly lacked last season save for an inconsistent Iwobi.
Did arsenal overpay for Pepe? I like the signing. I don’t care how much they pay because it’s really not my money and I want quality players but I don’t get why he is worth £72m? I understand there has been a huge increase in fees since the Neymar deal went down but how much better is he to other wingers over the last 2 summers? Just a thought, since we are spending over £100m? I would rather have added more players for depth than 1 big player like Pepe and unusable saliba this year. One big reason we faded… Read more »
Looking forward to the season now, I still have a faint memory of the end of last season though. If I remember correctly, we couldn’t defen….. ahhhh let’s not worry about that now eh