According to L’Equipe, Nicolas Pepe is undergoing a medical in Paris ahead of a move to Turkish side Besiktas.
The Istanbul outfit had contacted the Ivorian earlier in the summer but negotiations over wages and contract length eventually saw talks break down.
Now, with options of a move limited after the transfer window closed for the major European leagues on Friday, it appears both parties have resumed contact and are making considerable progress.
Arsenal have long accepted they are going to take a huge hit on the £72 million they paid for Pepe in 2019 and are happy to let the winger leave. He spent last season on loan at French side Nice but struggled with a knee problem and only made 19 league appearances.
It’s unclear at this point whether it’s a loan or permanent move or if Edu will facilitate the situation by terminating the 28-year-old’s contract with a year remaining.
The transfer window in Turkey remains open until 15 September so there is plenty of time to get a deal done one way or another.
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UPDATE – Sport Witness, relaying information from Turkish journalist Firat Günayer, claim L’Equipe are being fed information by Pepe’s agent and that talk of a medical is actually wide of the mark. Frankly, if this is the way that the player’s reps are operating, you can see why their man is currently languishing at Arsenal.
Good luck Nic, not nearly as bad as people made you out to be.
Yeah it is not his mistake that they bought him for 72Mn£.
But still quite bad
He either had a fallout with Arteta or he totally doesn’t fit our system, but I agree with you he is not that bad. His biggest strength was his unpredictable dribbling which also confused our players but he did score some nice goals. Wish him all the best and hope he will be happy.
His final ball was pretty good as well. It seemed like in the first 18 months or so of Arteta’s reign, when we struggled to create from open play, we could rely on him for at least 1 big moment a game – be it a goal, assist, a big chance created out of nowhere, a narrow miss. Even though his all-round game was often ropey, that 1 moment would still come The Willian transfer set him back a long way, then Saka shifting to the right wing sealed his fate. It was always going to be a uphill battle… Read more »
The left peg was deadly. He had good size, underrated header of the ball, good speed but not elite, too easily brushed off the ball, if you shaded him down the line he had no answers. But if you gave him a sight on the left… BANG. That’s why I think he’s better as a striker or a weak side winger.
Make no mistake, about 100 clubs could use him, but his wages are what killed it. 140k is more than twice what the top earners would make at clubs where he would start.
Yeah….surely better than Anthony and gave more end result than Sancho…amazing no one will offer a decent fee for him at 27 with all the saudi money this summer…i’m still also dumbfounded by the 4m for holding by the way…..Our bad selling reputation is quite a thing…
It doesn’t help when your sporting director laments how shit the players are and how hard it is to get rid of them.
Unbelievably good at cutting in onto his left foot, but not much else to his game. Still I’d value him the same as Theo, which is two levels up from Glen Helder.
..and judging by the update, we’ll be seeing more of him this season. So I take it all back, Pepe is pure class and let’s give him some more minutes to build his confidence.
And it’s not his fault he’s an introvert with an excruciating price tag. He’s also a far nicer guy than Raul Sanelli.
Hit me pepe one more time!
Nic needs a Pep(e) talk
“Gol de Pepe, Nicola Pepe. Live is life.”
Who’s with me?
When elite talent meets mediocre mentality, you get this type of situation. There have been so many. Hatem Ben Arfa, Ricardo Quaresma, Allan St. Maximin, Stewart Downing… I could go on. We call these players “Mercurial” or “Enigmatic” but puzzling and inconsistent might be more apt. It’s a shame. I thought there was a potentially awesome striker in there with Pepe (yes, striker, not winger) but he never grew into the game around him.
There are a million players who I’d put in a list of mercurial elite talent before considering Stewart Downing!
Legs like a gazelle, shot like a howitzer, SD had the goods man. Couldn’t show it often enough.
Just look at some of these goals. 30+ yards on his chocolate leg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozZH1gRfkFQ
Ugh. People only remember washed up Downing, if they remember him at all. Top player in his physical prime.
I think you confuse ‘technically gifted’ with ‘elite talent’. But elite talent is much more than that.
Flicks, rabonas etc. are great for highlight reels, but don’t count into scores of actual football games: goals & assists do. The guys you mentioned are all extremely skilled on the ball but often lack end product (because they lack in decision making, positional awareness etc.)
See Saka: he’s currently considered one of the best wingers in the world but you rarely see him do a stepover.
What you’re talking about is the combination of elite talent with elite mentality. That’s Bukayo Saka. Those things are learned through repetition and perseverance, those are all between the ears. The guys I mentioned had all the same talent as Bukayo but couldn’t apply themselves because they never learned the game properly.
I think that’s a bit harsh. His skillset just wasn’t right. A bit like Taveres his style is just naturally less controlled and so he doesn’t fit Arteta’s way of playing. Agent of chaos and all that.
Maybe towards the end he looked low on confidence and the effort levels and focus dropped a tad, but can you really blame him given how clear it was that Mikel didn’t trust him?
How time makes memories fond. He never worked on his right leg so he could take players down the line, like Saka, so he became predictable. Some things weren’t his fault but he absolutely could and should have made more of his career at Arsenal, and ultimately the performances weren’t there.
“When talent meets mediocre mentality” that could apply to so many players in the late Wenger era… Adebayor, Nasri, Bendtner, EJT, Song, Arshavin… hell, even our dear Özil. Except Mesut was so insanely talented that even with mediocre mentality he was occasionally amazing. Just not the consistently amazing all time legend that he could’ve been…
Going to drive me mad all evening if I can’t remember this… EJT?? Literally going through every late Wenger transfer window in my head here!
Ah, but EJT was from the academy:) Emmanuel Jay-Thomas is what I believe Ebo was going for..
Jay Emmanuel Thomas with the letters the wrong way? Left field example if so!
Oh my, I got the words mixed up too, you are absolutely right!
Yep sorry thats the one 🙂
I think he might mean JET aka Jay Emmanuel (sp?) Thomas? Super promising player, but couldn’t match the talent with mentality.
He had insane talent. Probably much worse than mediocre mentality
Not fair on Ben Arfa, wasn’t the same after his horror leg break.
And yet, ASM went for £30m
Nothing dodgy about that deal, whatsoever
Good luck to him. Just wasn’t a good fit for the Arsenal team Arteta has built (nor one in the plans of Emery either tbf).
All the best Pepe.
I wish him all the best. Still remember the spin-o-rama goal vs. Wolves in the 95th a couple campaigns ago.
this is what happens when the deal makers buy the players without reference to the coach. on a multiple scale clearest example that bunch of idiots at chelski
Scored some bangers. Hope he does really well.
We were every bit to blame for how this turned out as he was.
Scored some big goals and won an FA Cup, yet still talked as a bigger flop than Sancho and Antony. Shame it didn’t work out
My word. Imagine how shit his agent must be. He needs to get rid of the people representing him, they are ruining his career.
If Arteta gave Pepe half the chances he gave Willian and now Harvetz, I can bet my hats off that he would deliver more. Sadly Arteta is doing the same thing to Smith Rowe. Well…..what do I know? He is the boss. Good luck Pepe
Pepe couldn’t
Arteta gave Pepe plenty of opportunities he just couldn’t maintain possession at key times and couldn’t play off the ball in the defensive set up. If you can’t play off the ball, a la Sambi, Cedric, Tavares, then you can’t play for Arteta.
Would remember him for two free kick goals in one match. All the best Pepe.
Given there is only Nelson as an option to play on right wing, I wonder if having him as a backup to Saka for Carabao, FA cup matches as an option. We are anyways losing money by terminating his contract
I was about to say that this is the last time Arsenal would suffer such a huge hit but Havertz crossed my mind. If it does not work out in two seasons, we’ll be in this mess again. I hope and pray Kai comes good.
Surely has to be in the top five worst transfers of recent memory, if not the worst, given the cash involved and literally zero resale value. So glad that Raul scumbag is gone.
Not bagging on Pepe either. He is a decent player and the transfer fee had nothing to do with him. Purely from a financial perspective.
We can’t even get £10m for him??
The Martinelli excuse won’t hold with this reported eventuality, for me. Pépé is far too good to have his Arsenal contract terminated. He’s better than Saka in too many areas to be dropped like this. Poor management. Don’t use Cancelo as a comparison, that is just kids and EA FIFA.