Nicolas Pepe: Saint Nic Is Back

[Macho]

What I’m referring to happens in the match day threads. Not necessarily in here, his haters have no reason to post in here this is a place for his sympathisers now that he’s been exiled.

For periods even when some of his supporters have given up because there's nothing to even defend anymore, it's literally his haters keeping this thread alive and bumping it to celebrate another non appearance

The only reason why some of us who have a little bit of time left for Pepe even have something to say is literally because of Nketiah. I have lost count the amount of times the likes of Saka and ESR who played a full 90 mins, played well or badly - and their threads are firmly rooted to the bottom of Arsenal talk.

Meanwhile this one is popping and full of weird and often hateful comments at both the player and posters who defend him. Whoever says otherwise just have their own weird agendas.

 

[A_G]

There's rumours going around that Pepe isn't being played because he's a few appearances away from triggering a clause that would require a sizeable bonus payment to Lille. People might find that outlandish but there's precedent at this club for something similar:

Arsenal revealed to be paying Southampton £10,000 every time Alex

Clause is part of the agreement that saw the England international move to the Emirates in 2011 and appears to have had a severe impact on his playing time in the last two years

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Macho]

There's rumours going around that Pepe isn't being played because he's a few appearances away from triggering a clause that would require a sizeable bonus payment to Lille. People might find that outlandish but there's precedent at this club for something similar:

Arsenal revealed to be paying Southampton £10,000 every time Alex

Clause is part of the agreement that saw the England international move to the Emirates in 2011 and appears to have had a severe impact on his playing time in the last two years

www.independent.co.uk

That’s never effected our selection processes, we can’t even sell the guy cause of how his career has gone which is a much bigger prob, so I highly doubt that.

His minutes so far very closely match his first season and second season tbh. There’s actually nothing out of the ordinary here when you zoom out.

It’s more stark cause there’s no Europa which is where he normally made a case for himself.

 

[A_G]

That’s never effected our selection processes, we can’t even sell the guy cause of how his career has gone which is a much bigger prob, so I highly doubt that.

His minutes so far very closely match his first season and second season tbh. There’s actually nothing out of the ordinary here when you zoom out.

It’s more stark cause there’s no Europa which is where he normally made a case for himself.

But he hasn't played at all since October, this is starting to look like Ospina at Napoli as well:

Napoli bench David Ospina as he's 1 appearance away from activating option-to-buy

Napoli have seemingly dropped David Ospina to the bench to avoid being forced to buy him, with the Arsenal loanee just one appearance away from activating a clause in his contract.

dailycannon.com

I'm not saying it's definitely the reason but I don't think this rumour is as crazy as people might think

 

[Trilly]

It's clear you don't know ball or your bias is too much so you make up stuff. Pepe has far from the worst first touch. What he does have is a weird dribbling style where he looks off balance like he's about to fall. Reminds me of baby giraffes.

That said his first touch is excellent on most occasions.

nlyne is just trolling but yeah. Good dribblers don’t have bad touches.

He’s got an inconsistent touch at times, Salah vibes. Doesn’t help he’s constantly in and out of the team as a bit of sharpness would help.

 

[Macho]

I don't think this rumour is as crazy as people might think

It is

For the reasons I explained, his Prem minutes have been like this since the day he joined you can check it yourself. The 72 mil we will never see again is a far bigger problem then whatever bonuses are owed.

We paid Mari's extras and he's even less of a factor in this squad.

 

[Ciscoo]

Look like CF finishes to me. Mostly from a central spot. He comes alive in the box. He is asleep during 2 phase build up. Get him around the box and he is lethal. Yet Arteta persisted with him in the 5th lane.

I’ve said for a long time, it’s CF or bust with him. His ball striking is much better than his dribbling at this level.

It’s shocking we haven’t even tried him there tbh.

 

[Riou]

The club forcing Pepe to never get played, so they can use that money when they eventually need to bin Arteta.

Finally doing something smart as a club!

 

[Kav]

I notice a similarity between Pepe, Amn, Kola, Özil? When the club/Arteta wants you to leave they park you either in the bench or out of the team.

When the club wants you to stay but you want to leave they play you even when you’re out of form.

Poor man management if you ask me. Where is the meritocracy?

 

[MikeVinna]

Look you can not rate Pepe. It’s fine. But when Nketiah (who’s worse and can sign for another club in a month) gets minutes over him there’s something fishy going on.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

I honestly dont get how we've all just decided he's completely useless and can offer nothing especially when you factor in him having a pretty good 2nd half to last season. He's barely played and people have decided he's completely **** because he didn't do much in a few 10-15 minute cameos and hasn't even come on since. Arteta is best brainwasher I've seen. Even if you don't believe Pepe is even worth half of what we paid to believe he can offer nothing when we're struggling so much offensively is so odd to me. It's like it's just happened over night.

I decided he was rubbish after the first couple of games, you can tell we got ripped off.

Arteta didn’t brainwash anyone, Pepe has just been sh*t his entire Arsenal career that’s why he got dropped. Just because his two fanboys on here love to paint him as some victim when really he’s just poor. People were making excuses for him for the longest time.

 

[grange]

I still like Pepe but I'm the type who likes to support our players even when they struggle to fit in or have been playing poor lately. As much as I'd like to see him get in games, he just doesn't fit what Arteta is trying to build (and you could argue nobody knows what he's trying to build either) and we should be trying to move him on so he doesn't sit here and rot.

For a club who prides itself on having "class", it's embarrassing how we treat some of our players.

 

[Macho]

For a club who prides itself on having "class", it's embarrassing how we treat some of our players.

Your stance is absolutely fair enough, but tbf we don't know why Pepe has been iced. Pepe could have been in the wrong and Arteta could be justified we won't know until one of them speak up.

 

[Macho]

I decided he was rubbish after the first couple of games, you can tell we got ripped off.

Arteta didn’t brainwash anyone, Pepe has just been sh*t his entire Arsenal career that’s why he got dropped. Just because his two fanboys on here love to paint him as some victim when really he’s just poor. People were making excuses for him for the longest time.

Where do you see me painting him as a victim? I've backed Arteta's treatment of him this season 100% all the way it's for the best. Arteta guys like yourself, boon, etc are quick to blame him instead of Arteta for bad results.

 

[Maybe]

I decided he was rubbish after the first couple of games, you can tell we got ripped off.

Arteta didn’t brainwash anyone, Pepe has just been sh*t his entire Arsenal career that’s why he got dropped. Just because his two fanboys on here love to paint him as some victim when really he’s just poor. People were making excuses for him for the longest time.

Arsenal is a team full of sh*t players, there are only 2 or 3 of them you could imagine in a normal team. That's probably Gabriel and maybe Ramsdale.
The rest are very much like Pepe, some decent stuff but loads of bad habits and overall not good enough. The thing is that the manager needs to make sense out of that, so he should play around with their bad habits and see what works out. The issue with Pepe being out is not that he is our Salah on the bench, it's the fact that much worse players than him are playing every game without a break

 

[Macho]

Arsenal is a team full of sh*t players, there are only 2 or 3 of them you could imagine in a normal team. That's probably Gabriel and maybe Ramsdale.

I was watching Pepe's most recent twitter compilation and I was thinking this tbh

The amount of stick he gets I look around and I don't get it

 

[grange]

Arsenal is a team full of sh*t players, there are only 2 or 3 of them you could imagine in a normal team. That's probably Gabriel and maybe Ramsdale.

Insanely bad take..

 

[Maybe]

I was watching Pepe's most recent twitter compilation and I was thinking this tbh

The amount of stick he gets I look around and I don't get it

I wrote the first part of "2 or 3 of them", then went for the second part to name them, and after Gabriel I really struggled to think of any Arsenal player I could imagine playing for a top club. Ramsdale is there just so my first part ends up being valid

 

[Maybe]

Insanely bad take..

I'm open to suggestions...

 

[grange]

Arsenal is a team full of sh*t players, there are only 2 or 3 of them you could imagine in a normal team. That's probably Gabriel and maybe Ramsdale.

I wrote the first part of "2 or 3 of them", then went for the second part to name them, and after Gabriel I really struggled to think of any Arsenal player I could imagine playing for a top club.

Love seeing these goalpost shifts in less than 10 minutes of each other. Sheesh.