Arsenal will pay £20m upfront for Nicolas Pepe, paying the remaining £52m over the next five years.

This summer Arsenal are reportedly working with a budget of just £40m which means they’ve had to be clever in the market, not something we’re used to them being.

According to the Daily Mail and others, Lille are happy to receive Pepe’s transfer fee over a number of years as it will help with FFP.

Unlike Crystal Palace with Wilfried Zaha, Lille seem happy to take money in instalments as will ensure they comply with Direction Nationale du Controle de Gestion (French FFP) over next few years.

Works for Arsenal.

— Simon Collings (@sr_collings) July 29, 2019

Arsenal have already brought Gabriel Martinelli to the club for £6m while they are expected to only pay a small part of William Saliba’s fee this summer.

Forking out £20m this summer for Pepe, therefore, keeps them within their reported £40m budget when you factor in £15m to loan Dani Ceballos and the money generated from sales so far.

Even though Arsenal deny they have only £40m, it seems like they do.