Reaction to Nicolas Pépé speaking out about his struggles after Arsenal transfer | ESPN FC

ESPN FC’s Dan Thomas, Frank Leboeuf, Craig Burley and Steve Nicol reacts to Nicolas Pépé’s comments about the struggles he experienced trying to justify his then-record transfer to Arsenal, which caused him to consider quitting and have a “disgust for football."

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[Adams]

Still won more trophies in English football than Harry Kane

[Surffolk_slider]

He couldn’t have arrived at Arsenal at a worse time, Unai wasn’t there long enough and Arteta didn’t have the time or patience for Pepe to settle in because he had to prove himself as a manager. I loved watching Pepe even if he was frustrating at times

[liberalslayer]

Yet he has more goals and assists than Antony and Sancho combined in less games than them

[radonspace]

He wasnt awful.
He was decent.
Perhaps not the top elite player.
But he was good.

[deandrebrown]

Unpopular opinion, but he wasn’t as big of a flop as people make him out to be. His output actually wasn’t bad, he just fell out with Arteta because he wouldn’t retain the ball. And he wouldn’t track back

[DanePetersKwabenaManu]

This was one of the best segments and I appreciate the honesty 🙏🏿

[mas]

If young football fans have not watched Steve Nicol play, they need to watch his videos…what a quality player he was. Transformed the wing back position

[babasolaoso]

If Arteta treated Kai the way he treated Pepe

We would have on our hands the biggest flop to ever happen in all of football history

Kai was utterly rubbish
But Arteta wanted it to work
Cos it was him that spent the money
And look at Kai shining now

He gave no such time to Pepe
Pepe was not as bad as Kai was (not even close)

[SirTibzy]

Are ESPN still too scared to talk about the Enzo Fernandez situation? It's one of the biggest stories in football right now.

[MorrisonNo]

Pepe was not awful, he just wasn't a 72m player, he's better than Anthony for example, had way more output than him

[MRBp]

Pepe issue was never talent.

Everybody at Arsenal talk about Pepe being the most skilled & best player in training.

It was alot of external pressures from the media, from the pricetag,

Pepe played football with freedom at Lille, he had pressure as the go-to guy team depended on.

He saved Lille from relegation his debut season, he took Lille 2nd in Ligue 1 in his 2nd season.

Pepe that season was directly involved in 45% of Lille Ligue 1 goals with his G/A (34) and his G/A won his team the most league points by any individual player in Europe at an insane 25 points.

Lille was Pepe fc in there 2nd place finish.

Pepe was on penalties, he took several pressure penalties.

Pepe at Arsenal took pressure penalties, had clutch moments.

It's not mentality issue.

Pepe was major reason Arsenal won the FA Cup.

Pepe scoring clutch goal in Quarter final in 2-1 win, setup semi final opener v Man City in 2-0 win, setup FA Cup winning goal v Chelsea.

Was clutch during Arsenal run to the Europa league semi final, he scored multiple clutch goals and scored in the semi final to keep Arsenal in the tie.

Pepe had many big moments at Arsenal.

Pepe had 48 G/A in 75 starts.

[DevonBeckles]

Pepe just met Saka and Mikel then met Mikel that's What happen bounced up a star boy who earned the trust of all his coaches and fans ...

[hassshoban]

Pepe was a victim of new management. Arteta preferred Saka. 😊

[JabbarTV]

It depends on the player
mentality is all

[Charlovanni]

Not everyone will cut it at the top, simple as

[troy]

Pepe had a decent first 18 months, helped win the FA cup, then in Artetas first transfer window he buys Willian and benched Pepe, I can see why he lost confidence. I assumed Arteta would work with the him but after seeing Arteta for 5 years in management and you see the likes of Fabio V, Lakonga, Tavares, Willian, Mari, Havertz, Turner, Runnerson, Trusty Zinchenko etc I somewhat understand. But that transfer should be a lesson because Emery wanted Zaha but they went for Pepe and someone in the club made money on that transfer, the lesson is get the player the manager wants and not a player you get good installments on and get make a % on.

[belsthegreat]

He was decent but his price tag made people judge him far too harshly, he came when Emery wasn't doing well and Arteta couldn't have the patience to retrain him, Xhaka and many others and the fact that Saka just filled that role for a few games and was excellent there didn't help his situation. He's far better than most and it's the harsh Arsenal fan critics and rival fan critics and pundits that were making him seem like the worst ever player, when there were and far worse that cost more it's just bad timing honestly, because if he came like a year or two later he would of fit right in

[TobiMesh]

I really felt for him during his time. The team was quite bad at the time honestly. And in fairness to him, his performances weren't that bad. Definitely not as bad as the rap he got. He wasn't awful. The team was poor. Nobody from that team is remaining in the squad except Saka. And then Saka was LWB. Arteta came in and didn't favor him and that's Artetas right. But the player wasn't a bad player. He produced more than Havertz did initially.And Havertz came into a settled side. Pepe came into a poor team.

[Md]

That one game where he scored what 2 free kicks in a row was insane, shame he couldn’t get it going when needed.

[MRBp]

Pepe situation he was very unlucky.

Came at the wrong time, under the wrong manager at the wrong pricetag.

Pepe was a gross overpay with Unai Emery wanting Wilfred Zaha instead.

Pepe wasn't Emery choice & Emery was unhappy with club not getting him Zaha.

Raul Sanlehi wanted Pepe, he structured the 75m deal, 3 installments (25m payed each year for 3 years).

Raul Sanlehi lost his job cause of that Pepe deal.

Pepe started his Arsenal career postively, good performances v Bournmouth, Spurs, Liverpool away.

However he wasn't scoring during that good period & arsenal weren't good enough or playing to his strengths.

Pepe v United at Old Trafford was his first disaster performancr, Emery benched him, that same game Saka started on LW was phenomenal & setup equaliser in 1-1 draw.

Emery was never keen on him & never gave him a fair run in the team without benching him or not playing him, but the criticism was piling up.

Antony at United got less criticism for playing 10x worse, producing less, scoring less, creating almost nothing.

Media was on Pepe back, slaughtering him as the posterboy of flops, throwing 72m price tag every game.

They already labelling him a flop very early on.

Combine that with how poor Arsenal was he became an easy target of ridicule.

Pepe became a scapegoat with media + pundits targetting him & almost bullying him during his debut season.

Pepe was being treated by the media like he was a genuine world class player.

Even with World class players media are never that harsh, particularly English players.

Similar to what Sancho endured, except Sancho was purely social media hate, british media weren't on him.

Pepe was a 30m player, a fair price, he may have become a success.

Media were looking at him as Van Dijk, Allison because of the pricetag.

If Pepe came at that same pricetag at Liverpool he wouldn't have got ridiculed.

At Arsenal he has to be a world class or he was an easy target for an underperforming team.

When team is good the flops don't get highlighted.

Thats what made it easy for VVD + Allison who didn't come to save a bad team.

Also how a 65m Naby Keita can get away with media scrutiny.