Nicolas Pepe’s agent has taken to Twitter to mock a L’Equipe article about Arsenal’s reported €80m bid for the player.
On Saturday night, Arsenal fans briefly got excited when French outlet TF1 reported an €80m bid from the Gunners for Lille winger Nicolas Pepe. L’Equipe then followed up the claims with an article of their own.
Arsenal correspondents David Ornstein, Charles Watts and James Benge all quickly denied the bid, and added that the club couldn’t afford such a large offer anyway.
Pepe’s agent Sam Khiat then continued to make a mockery of L’Equipe’s report on Twitter. He posted “ah bon” – a French phrase essentially meaning “oh really?!” – along with a few selected sections of the piece.
https://twitter.com/FsmagencyParis/status/1150182957887500288
The three sections he picked out were as follows:
- This information, announced on Saturday night by our friends at Telefoot, was confirmed on Saturday morning by the entourage of the player, who work on this case with the agent Jorge Mendes.
- It would be the dream of the player and his father (to join PSG).
- Relations with his (Pepe’s) coach, Ibrahima Kamara, remain tense.
Clearly, the first section is of the most interest to Arsenal fans. Khiat is not-so-subtlely suggesting that he didn’t confirm any such bid to the French media. Without the confirmation of the agent, the piece suddenly holds a lot less weight.
It’s also interesting to see Khiat seemingly deny that Pepe’s dream is to join PSG. If the winger does end up in the French capital, that might make things a bit awkward when he does the standard “I’ve always wanted to play for this club” interview.
In all honesty, the reports of this bid were ridiculous from the start, but this should help put them to bed.