Nicolas Pepe has revealed how the media pressure at Arsenal affected him, and how the Gunners made him agree not to move to Saudi Arabia before terminating his contract.
In Thursday’s print edition of L’Equipe, former Arsenal winger Nicolas Pepe has spoken out about his time with the Gunners, and the intense criticism he faced whilst in London.
“It was almost harassment,” Pepe said. “I don’t pay attention to social media much but my brother would say to me “they said that about you”. Subconsciously, it affected me.
“It also came from the media or some members of the club. They don’t realise that it can play on the mind, on your family and that it has repercussions on performances.
“The only people who have always supported me are the Arsenal supporters.
“At Arsenal, I had suffered a kind of trauma, as if my passion had been ripped away from me,” Pepe continued. “I had a distaste for football. By not playing anymore, I was wondering why I was doing this job.
“I doubted to the point that I was thinking about stopping everything. I was wondering how they could have been so hard on me.
“They went so far as to call me the biggest flop in the history of the Premier League! But I refused to mope.”
On his eventual departure from Arsenal, Pepe revealed that he would ideally have liked to cancel his contract earlier than he did.
Arsenal were reluctant to do so, having spent so much to bring Pepe to the club in the first place.
The Gunners were so concerned about the optics of the departure that when they finally agreed to a termination, they first ruled out a Saudi Arabia move.
“I would have liked to terminate (the contract) earlier in the summer but Arsenal didn’t want to,” Pepe said.
“The speech was: ‘We bought you for €80 million, vis-à-vis the media, we can’t.’
“They were asking for large sums, so it fell through every time. They ended up accepting it after the European market closed. Only the Gulf countries and Turkey remained.
“But Arsenal only agreed to terminate on the condition that I undertake not to join Saudi Arabia. A question of image. And there was this offer from Trabzonspor.”
Pepe joined Trabzonspor in September 2023, signing a one-year deal, but he’s now a free agent again.
Fabrizio Romano reported in May that the winger had chosen to run down his deal with the club, with offers on the table from the Middle East and Saudi Arabia. At that point, the suggestion was that Pepe wanted to remain in Europe.
The winger scored five goals and assisted two in 20 appearances for Trabzonspor, with a couple of injuries limiting his minutes.
Pepe’s primary absence during 2023/24 was for the Africa Cup of Nations, as he missed 10 club games for the tournament.
With the Ivory Coast, Pepe played five times, starting twice and providing one assist. He also scored in the round-of-16 penalty shootout.