Nicolas Pepe confirms he’ll return to Arsenal this summer, and hold talks with the club before making a decision on his future.
Arsenal winger Nicolas Pepe spent the 2022/23 campaign out on loan with OGC Nice, but the Ligue 1 side didn’t have an option to buy in his deal, and the player has confirmed he’s now returning to his parent club.
“I will return to Arsenal,” Pepe told Colinterview (via GFFN). “I was loaned without an option to buy so I have to go back to Arsenal.
“I don’t know [about my future] yet. When I get back, I’ll speak with the coach and everyone and see what everyone’s ideas are and then we’ll make a decision.”
The first days of pre-season training are set to get underway next week, and with Pepe not featuring on international duty, he should be involved from the off.
Though there are still question marks over the winger’s fitness, after he missed the final seven games of Nice’s campaign with an injury.
Speaking more generally about his experience of Arsenal under Mikel Arteta so far, Pepe made to deny claims that he was cast out for being a bad fit or an underperformer.
“People say that he identified me as a player that wasn’t up to the level in his team, in his philosophy. It’s completely false,” Pepe insisted.
“When he arrived, he had (Manchester) City’s philosophy. He had a squad that was filled with quality and backups in every position. When he spoke to me, he said he counted on me, he wanted me to do this or that, and you have to focus on that.
“He improved me in every way. He spoke to me the whole time, I watched videos with his assistants all the time. He really believed in me. He said I had incredible potential, so we need to extract that potential.
“At the end of the first season, he spoke with me and told me to do this or that. The second season comes along, I was a substitute. I was going mad. How could I be a substitute when he said he counted on me? Everything is spinning in your head.
“I was a substitute for [what felt like] 10 matches. It was at the time when they signed Willian. He is a number 10 or a winger. But he plays on the wing for like 11 or 12 matches in a row.
“My head turned, knowing that I had spoken with the coach and it wasn’t like that.
“But that improved in the sense that he gave me a chance, I scored against Sheffield United at the Emirates. The confidence started to come back. I started to speak better, but it was a bit cold.
“I started to speak to agents, but we didn’t see each other like before. But it improved. It’s not true that he labelled me. Not true at all.
“He helped me in every way, on a tactical level, in terms of game intelligence because his philosophy requires a lot of intelligence. He knew my style of play wasn’t waiting in possession, it was cutting inside, it wasn’t waiting out on the right.
“Before, I was a bit freer. I had to wait in my zone, and I wasn’t like that before. These are parts of my game that he tried to improve. He always wanted to help me with all of that.”
Reports suggest Pepe is unlikely to have a future at Arsenal, but the next fortnight should give us a much clearer idea of the next steps.