Arsenal are confident of completing the £72m signing of Lille winger Nicolas Pepe, but the deal isn’t quite done yet, according to reports.

On Saturday, the BBC’s David Ornstein confirmed reports that Arsenal had reached an €80m agreement with Lille to sign Nicolas Pepe on a five-year contract.

He added that they still needed to reach a full agreement with the player’s agent, but the deal was set to be closed in the next day or two.

The Telegraph echo this hesitance in confirming the move as a done deal, claiming that whilst there is ‘confidence that a deal can be completed’, there’s still no final agreement in place.

Various sources report that Arsenal would be paying the transfer fee in instalments, given the club’s restricted budget this summer.

That’s what you’d expect for a deal of this size anyway, and it doesn’t appear to be causing any problems from Lille’s point of view.

It’s going to be a little nervy for the next few days until Arsenal get the deal over the line. There’s clearly competition for Pepe’s signature and it’s hard to tell whether the player and his agents will agree with Lille and pick Arsenal until it actually happens.