He was the most expensive player in Arsenal’s history when they signed him from Lille in 2019 for €79 million. That heavy price tag, however, seemed to have create a too heavy bourden for Nicolas Pepe, who never made his name at Emirates.Now, year and half after his move to Villarreal, the Ivorian winger opened up on his time at Arsenal, the relationship with Mikel Arteta and the highest possible expectations that were, unfortunately, never met. It’s official! Arsenal have signed Nicolas Pepe for £72m. How are you feeling Arsenal fans? 🕺https://t.co/dnFdJo3dkB— Soccer AM (@SoccerAM) August 1, 2019 In an interview with The Athletic, Pepe, 29, he says he is happy to talk about Arsenal despite his unsuccessful time with the Gunners.”When a club pays that much for you, the little details don’t matter,” Pepe said. “I was young. It was the first time I had left France to play abroad. I had to adapt in lots of ways, but people don’t see that. They only see what happens on the pitch.”Automatically, the first player to be criticised is the one that cost a lot of money. You have to be getting goals and assists, goals and assists. People expected 30, 35, 40 goals a season. But it was only Messi and Ronaldo who did that.”Arsenal spent a lot of money on me and I paid the price for it.”##NAJAVA_MECA_8519606####EDITORS_CHOICE##Interestingly, it was Carlo Ancelotti and Napoli that wanted him before the North Londoners, but one call from Arsenal’s then-manager Unai Emery changed everything.”I had a call with Ancelotti, who was Napoli coach at the time. It lasted five minutes. Half an hour later, I received another call, this time from Emery. It lasted an hour.”He told me exactly what he was looking for, everything he would expect from me if I joined Arsenal. He spoke about tactics, what he wanted from me, where he was going to play me, how I could expect to improve under him. Loads of detail. And although he’s not a great French speaker, he spoke to me in French for a whole hour. It was a small thing, but it impressed me. I felt his desire to work with me.”That’s why I signed. It wasn’t the club, it was the coach. When someone wants you like that, you go.”Rafa and Carragher predicted Pepe’s downfall years agoHowever, only two and a half months into the season Emery was sacked, and Arteta wasn’t that impressed with the Ivorian player.”With Arteta, it wasn’t… well, it was good at the start. After that, the confidence wasn’t really there. I got less and less game time, so there was some frustration. I’m not someone who likes being on the bench every week without justification or explanation. So yeah, that’s something that created some tension,” explained Pepe.
