Four clubs will benefit from Arsenal’s purchase of Nicolas Pepe for a club-record £72m – Lille, Angers, FC Solitaires and Stade Poitevin FC.
Arsenal finally announced Nicolas Pepe on Thursday afternoon to much fanfare even though the delay between his arrival for a medical at the start of the week and his appearance on Arsenal.com took away some of the gloss. Modern football and the 24-hour news cycle will do that.
We all knew that Angers would receive €7m from their sell-on clause with Lille but it has also been revealed that two other former Pepe clubs will benefit too.
FC Solitaires will receive €600,000 training compensation as the club were Pepe started his journey as a goalkeeper.
He then moved some 295km away to Poitiers in 2012 when his father changed jobs, taking the opportunity to also switch to an outfield position. They will reportedly receive €1m from the deal.
Arsenal, for their part, are believed to be paying £20m upfront with the rest paid off over five years.
Although much has been made of Arsenal paying in installments, this is common in football.