Nicolas Pepe says Unai Emery’s knowledge of French has helped him settle quickly at Arsenal but his next task is to learn English as soon as possible.
Despite a limited pre-season, the £72 million summer signing from Lille has already featured off the bench against both Newcastle United and Burnley and could well get his first start against Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday.
Explaining the rapport he’s building with the coach, Pepe told Arsenal.com: “It’s been really good because he speaks French and it has been much easier for us to communicate.
“I am new, the strategy and tactics are new and it really helps that I can get the coach’s assistance. Now I need to learn English and this is something he is helping me with also.”
Pepe also reiterated why he opted to move to down-in-the-dumps-Europa-League-playing-Arsenal when other clubs were also knocking on his door.
It turns out the Ivorian is eager to make his mark in London by restoring the club to Europe’s top table; the Champions League.
“I chose to come here because it’s a club with a lot of ambition,” he explained.
“They have the dream of coming back to the Champions League and I am also an ambitious person, so the choice was very logical.
“I am attracted to the Premier League because it is an extremely intense championship and the best league in the world. The idea is to win the Europa League and that is a goal of ours. It’s a European event and our goal is to do better than last season. I believe we will.”
Emery helping him with his English is a bit of a worry though…
I wonder if his French is as good as his English
At least he can say “bonsoir”
Bonnet de douche, bonnet de douche.
mange tout Rodney, mange tout
and ‘cava’
Good ebening
Sky sports : Pepe how are you settling in to the premier league? Pepe: israeli importante to have attacking and defending in a competitive way and be protagonist…..errr…Full ham!
Actually his french was a bit better than his english (which make sense with common language roots)… and he was saying “bonne soir” 😉
Can’t wait for Sat, feel we’ve got a result in us, come on you fucking gunners!!!
We should bring back Ray Parlour, Paul Merson, and Ian Wright to be his English teachers.
Emery’s teaching English now?
This is one process between the coach and the player.
We are going in our way, working with our capacity to impose our ideas
With personality. Good ebening.
Good ebening. Pepe is a player with big, big personality and performance. One that he can help us with his performance, like other players. We need a full team to follow our process and to work hard to win our aim for this seasons.
@Kolkata_Gooner. A little mean to pick on a man who can’t tell the difference between V and B. Seems to be a nearly daily battle in India!! 😉
So brave of u to be acting all smart on arseblog hidin behing a username. You a f**kin dummy
No you a f**kin dum dum.
hey i forgot to @PeteyB. Called him a dummy
not u lol
Not picking on him mate. I appreciate what he does, speaking in a language other than his mother tongue. And its actually nice to hear him speak, his unique way of saying things, etc. Much nicer than listening to Harry Kane, who is supposed to be a native speaker. 🙂
We need moments in English and also in French, and the balancing of the moments is something that also we have in our moments.
“GOOD EBENING” in an accent I imagine will be much like Kolo Toure’s is an arousing thought
he’s french born so unlikely to sound much like kolo
Sounds like a man saying he wants to start vs Liverpool to me! Hope he goes full Arshavin on them.
I’ll be happy if our defense doesn’t go full Stepanovs.
Is that actually worse than when it’s ¼ Mustafi?
you didn’t see the 8v1 at OT then?
I didn’t. I do seem to remember a pretty horrible 8-2 though.
I hope he does start! (nothing to do with my FPL team of course) 🙂
Served with a side of Julio Baptista.
Gud evneeing, how can I nutmeg you..
He’s certainly enthusiastic, isn’t he. Very encouraging. Then there’s the added bonus of Emery teaching him English. How can he fail to make himself off the pitch understood and on it? Of course, gestures can help in the interim and I’m sure he’ll know a few of them…
In French
Surely someone else could teach him English?! I can’t understand Unai at the best of times!! Although be funny listening to Pepe pronounce his h’s ?
That’s one thing the French and Spanish ‘ave in common: silent aitches
And Italians
An’ Norf Lunderners
Sue, he said Emery was helping him with it. Probably just recommended a teacher hopefully? 🙂
Well, we’ll find out when we hear him being interviewed, Paul ?
Haha
Wow, is Emery his English teacher?
We cahyn ply together with a big commitment in big moments etc etc.
Off topic:
Maybe we should try and pay for Ceballos permanent transfer now. Looks like the price will only go up. Also, it can fund the transfer of Pogba to Real.
We can’t sign anybody at the moment, our window is over
January works for me though
He is registered as our player for the season anyway.
Agree the terms with Madrid (and Ceballos) and ratify with the respective League in the Jan transfer window.
Signing a player based on one match performance is not how a successful club run its business. For example bayern played james and never signed him as they were aware that the player might not suit their style on long terms. So we should be patient too. Its not that he will become from now a 40-50m become a 80m player after playing in loan. So it is better to wait and pay a few bucks than letting a player get on his comfort zone after a single performance. Lets wait and see how he performs against the rest of… Read more »
True but he doesn’t strike me as a comfort zone type of guy
Absolutely. It’s the same really with all our new signings and with the new look team as a whole. Two games against “preferred” opposition tells us very little. The next two games should be a little more revealing, but I don’t think we’ll get a real picture until Christmas or New Year.
Not preferred opposition, Burnley are the Orcs of this league (except for the Orcs from Stoke themselves who are not currently in the PL). Ceballos is one of the hot talents around, it’s a Q of if and how long he’ll take to adopt to the PL. The best test for that is against Burnley. It doesn’t mean that we have the Cazorla in his prime but possibly a young version of Carzola, given the time, after an up an down season (and more), he’ll be a pillar. The only problem is, Ceballos price is going to go up by… Read more »
I think this is a non-issue. Ceballos is not a diamond in the rough who needs to prove his quality–he is one of the most highly sought young players in the world. If Zidane wants him back (and they apparently have a poor personal relationship) then he will be Modric’s long-term successor at Madrid. If Zidane wants him sold, then the price will be sky-high, with lots of bidders–and remember, unlike players like Neymar, James, Bale, Sami Khedira, and Ozil, he is not (yet) on impossible wages.
We signed Tierney in the same widow, who is out injured and we have paid most of the money upfront for him. We have taken a significant risk. In terms of the value, at the end of the season if we are keen (even desperate) to buy i.e. he has really played well, then I think his price is going to inflate from whatever his value his currently + a big increase (potentially £ 50M to £ 80M). Its not just based on individual player performance that the price goes up, there is hardly any other market where the value… Read more »
If he carries on as he started we’ll be looking at a massive asking price, and we’ll have a ton of competition from elsewhere if we want to make a bid for him. We have no options on him with this loan, so the only way we’d have any chance of getting him is if he loves playing for us so much that he decides to walk away from one of the biggest teams in the world to join us. In reality I think he probably sees this season as a better way to get noticed by his own club… Read more »
You’re right that we face a Catch 22 over Ceballos. The better he plays, the more unlikely it is that we’ll be able to afford him – even if Madrid were up for selling him next Summer. Ceballos said earlier, in the Spanish press, that his aim is to return to La Liga and get into the first team. Madrid have certainly not indicated that he’ll be for sale. That said, President Perez is a wiley old fox in the transfer market and he’ll maximize any selling opportunity should it arise. Others, with deeper pockets, will be monitoring Ceballos closely… Read more »
Personally I don’t care if the price goes up as long as he plays good week in week out imagine him having a double digits in goals and assists and we are finally back in Champions League, it won’t matter if Madrid decided to overprice him because the loan fee we spent will be well spent regardless of the outcome in the future. So if the season is over over and he goes back to his parent club I wouldn’t have anything thing to moan about but enjoy that finally we got a loan player actually contribute something, because don’t… Read more »
Yes, but it’s annoying for fans that want to keep him here, but know he very probably won’t stay. Ultimately though if he plays a blinder for us this season and in doing so helps to get us into the CL then it’s mission accomplished, even if he’s back to La Liga.
You’re certainly right about loans generally – I can’t think of one that’s proved to be a success (but I’m sure that there is – well, fairly sure).
True that.
Yosi Benayoun?
Really.!? Nope.! Getting a player in his 30s on loan not a very good idea.
TH14 vs leeds
Don’t you go running Kim Kallstrom down. He helped us reach the final of the FA Cup that we then went on to win in 2014, he ALWAYS had a smile on his face when he played (4 times) for us, and he thinks that 15 minutes in the FA Cup semi-final was the best 15 minutes of his career. I liked him.
“Now I need to learn English and this is something he is helping me with also.”
Goode Ebeneeeeg
I recommend you to watch the Peaky fookin’ Blinders mate..
I’ve been watching it meself since the coach said he watches it. And it’s and absolute masterpiece. Like I was Thomas Shelby himself… fixing races and stuff. Made me a rich man but with government pinning me down like their own pawn, but I own them now, you see. OBE and all…
Nah… I can’t do Rambling Pete.
Stick to the day job brother
Merci after on hold till he scores against spurs
Unai’s English kicks the arse out of my Spanish ( and French for that matter) so you won’t catch me criticising
Looking forward to Pepe nutmegging van Dijk, then curling it past Alisson, and turning around calmly with a smile *Good Ebening* before his team mates mobbing him (and Ceballos getting whacked on the nose again in the celebrations).
Seriously though, with our front line and the likelihood the game will be an open one, I hope Emery picks an ambitious lineup because we may well be rewarded for it! 🙂
It’ll be Adrian in goal, won’t it? So he could always shout Adrian – Rocky style ?
I kinda get the whole idea of Emery teaching Pepe English because as a foreigner it’s real hard learning from say someone with an English or Scottish accent, Say Tierney is teaching Pepe English I think many of the content with Lost in transition. Tierney would be like “Comeon Mate I said ball” Pepe would be like “Sorry Hole”. So as a Fan From Tanzania where English is like my third language it is easier to understand when someone like Mourinho talk than say someone like Gerrard or Harry Kane. Onto the game, the sooner he gets into the starting… Read more »
Id argue our midfield is more suited to the task too. we got to the final in the EL last season, and was a point off top 4. we 100% have a better squad this season, and our closest rival whom beat us to European glory, lost its; manager, star player, ability to strengthen , and a key defender to us. its a long way up when city and pool are running away with the league ala last season, but were currently 2nd, with them top and on a record-equalling run. if we win at anfield we will make everyone… Read more »
So they’re curled up together on the sofa every ebening watching the Peaky Blinders?
Interesting tactics collum today as per usual. I think in as much that we may describe certain deficiencies in formation set ups, we must not be too narrow (no pun) in mindset either and discount for : 1) inexperience in younger players 2) inexperience in new players with others I don’t think 4-2-3-1 necessarily exposes our fullbacks anymore than 4-3-3 lacks width or 3-4-1-2 (which we adopted at the end is necessarily more water tight in the middle if we don’t prevent crosses coming into a vulnerable set of Cbacks in terms of aerial dominance. These are intangibles that will… Read more »
Seen him in a 4-3-3 interchanging front line, and a 3-4-1-2 set up to absorb and hit on the counter with two strikers working to pull defenders apart. Pepe showed flashes of brilliance and good maturity picking out passes or holding for us (something we have been lacking and now addressed by his and Cebellos inclusion albeit we’ve then lost iwobi, Nelson not withstanding) Very encouraging asset to have. I think the fundamental difference between him and maybe cheaper but equally good flank options in Ziyech or Fekir is he may be able (with his height) to develop a role… Read more »
The other thing I noticed in tactics collum today (always an interesting read …what happened to Anan?) was this allusion that we have suddenly developed a new long deep passing range from the back. We have always done this. Granit is important for this reason and Mustafi also fed balls out from the back, as per usual some were very good but not noticed since people had an agenda to only point out his weaknesses. The difference is we never showed enough for the ball or had players able to retain the ball better. With the 4-3-3 this season, we… Read more »
Unai helping Pepe with his English!
Hopefully Arsenal will release a dvd!??
Down in the dumps?
Unai is teaching Nicolas English!!! Oh dear ?