{"id":23015,"date":"2024-07-25T17:17:10","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T17:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=23015"},"modified":"2024-07-26T15:16:24","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T15:16:24","slug":"epl-arsenal-fans-judged-price-tag-not-my-football-nicolas-pepe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=23015","title":{"rendered":"EPL: Arsenal fans judged price tag, not my football \u2013 Nicolas Pepe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nicolas Pepe has come to terms with his Arsenal exit and the price tag that warped perceptions around his performances, but admits \u201cit wasn\u2019t easy\u201d.<\/p>\n

When people mention the Ivory Coast international, now 29, the then club-record \u00a372m fee to sign the winger from Lille soon follows.<\/p>\n

And it is a number, Pepe admits, he struggled to handle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy at all. And the fans weren\u2019t happy with how I was performing,\u201d he told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first joined, the fans weren\u2019t really judging my performances, they were judging the price tag. But I think I did some great things while at Arsenal. I don\u2019t regret my time there.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut my transfer fee to the club was the highest one they\u2019d signed, so they expected me to score in each match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arsenal signed Pepe in 2019 after a sensational season with Lille, during which he scored 23 goals and managed 12 assists, but he never approached the same strike rate in England.<\/p>\n

Nicolas Pepe of Arsenal during the Emirates Cup match between Arsenal and Seville at Emirates Stadium on July 30, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart MacFarlane\/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

He played his last game for Arsenal in 2022 and, after a season-long loan at Nice, is now without a club after leaving Turkish side Trabzonspor in the summer, having only\u00a0joined them on a free transfer from Arsenal last September.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Arsenal bought me for \u00a320m, maybe it\u2019d be different,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not the player\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t ask for \u00a3100m or \u00a390m. But that\u2019s how it is in the football world and it\u2019s something that people can\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n

Antony Photo Courtesy: Yahoo<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are also players like [Mykhailo] Mudryk and Antony who don\u2019t perform at their best all the time, and yet they\u2019re not bad players.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey helped me when leaving, which wasn\u2019t easy because I was injured, so my recovery wasn\u2019t easy\u2026 they helped me find a club quickly,\u201d he explained. \u201cSo, I definitely left the club on good terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always had a great relationship with Arteta. It\u2019s just that he didn\u2019t have full confidence in me, which is a shame.<\/p>\n

Mikel Arteta (Photo by Marc Atkins\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe put together a winning team, and sadly, I wasn\u2019t in that player turnover. But he\u2019s someone I respect, and I know he respects me too. And I wish him all the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pepe now feels the difficult time will make him mentally stronger.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the pressure I went through at Arsenal, I\u2019m in a pretty good headspace now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

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Nicolas Pepe has come to terms with his Arsenal exit and the price tag that warped perceptions around his performances, but admits \u201cit wasn\u2019t easy\u201d. When people mention the Ivory… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23015"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23185,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23015\/revisions\/23185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}