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Nicolas Pepe: The Nutmeg Express!

What would you do with Pepe?

  • Keep him for the foreseeable future

  • Give him one more season to prove himself

  • Sell if you can get a significant fee, keep otherwise

  • Sell at any price


Results are only viewable after voting.
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Tir Na Nog

Changes Opinion Every 5 Minutes

Country: Ireland
If Pepe starts regularly this season we've got a lot better chance of doing something. Otherwise our current team lacks serious goal output. We're far more potent with Pepe than without. As much as it'd be nice to get goals from elsewhere getting your actual goalscorers on the pitch would also help.
 

Heavy Duty Rom

Outdated Tweets Merchant
With cameras all around him, Arteta has no choice this season, he will have to unleash Pepe. I predict a monster season from Nicolas, 20 goals 10 assists minimum.
Hmmm, as much as Arsenal twitter are getting hyped by him, this is now 1 goal in 4 pre season games? Nore sure he's FPL worthy. Not when a consistent point scorer like Raphinha is 1m less.
 

Moah

Well-Known Member
Hmmm, as much as Arsenal twitter are getting hyped by him, this is now 1 goal in 4 pre season games? Nore sure he's FPL worthy. Not when a consistent point scorer like Raphinha is 1m less.
You can't take a pre season record as a measure but even then he had an assist today. It also looks like he's back on corner taking so it may add to his numbers.
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
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Country: England
You can't take a pre season record as a measure but even then he had an assist today. It also looks like he's back on corner taking so it may add to his numbers.
I think he reaches double digits in the league easy if he regularly starts, he's too potent. I fear he will be rotated a lot sadly, especially if Ødegaard or a 10 comes in. I suspect Saka right and ESR left behind Auba is Mikel's ideal starting line up.

I am not convinced he is nailed on for Arteta and even if he starts that way, it won't take much to see him dropped he'd have to play out of his skin.

Only reason he doesn't make my fantasy league team I just never know what the Arsenal line up is gonna be on match day.
 

Hleb's Sirush

Established Member
What I like about this thread is that in the early to middle part of his first season season you had a sizeable number of posters calling Pepe worse than Gervinho, championship level winger, Bebe like signing, worse transfer in our history etc. A lot of it because people had unrealistic expectations because of his price tag.

Near the end of the season most of those posters were willing to accept he wasn't that bad after all and that actually he can turn out to be quite a good player for us.

Still you can tell any acknowledgement of that kind is done very begrudgingly. They're still keeping the knife close by and will stick it in as soon as he doesn't kick on this season.

I'm looking forward to see those people go from 'he can be a good player' to 'wow we have a real player on our hands'.

Pepe, the rest is up to you. Make the unbelievers into believers.
 

Wryer

Well-Known Member
He might be limited in terms of attacking repertoire. But he is absolutely LETHAL when he applies himself. We must play to his strengths - counter attacking, isolation against full backs, free kicks.

I mean - no one ever complains about Robben.
 

Geofranco

Would let Saka date his daughter

Player:Saka
He might be limited in terms of attacking repertoire. But he is absolutely LETHAL when he applies himself. We must play to his strengths - counter attacking, isolation against full backs, free kicks.

I mean - no one ever complains about Robben.

Please don't put this guy and Robben in the same sentence. Robben's issue was that he was injury prone like Van Persie. When he was healthy, he was a menace. One of the most technically gifted players of his generation. Pepe is literally streetball version of Walcott. He can be very dangerous, but don't think players like him and Auba are going to lead Arsenal to higher heights. Laca is actually decent, but just lacks the size and athleticism to be really dangerous. He has the best all around game of any of the forwards. We still need a quality RB, CM and AM to get the best out of the team.
 

chessygoal

Well-Known Member
What I like about this thread is that in the early to middle part of his first season season you had a sizeable number of posters calling Pepe worse than Gervinho, championship level winger, Bebe like signing, worse transfer in our history etc. A lot of it because people had unrealistic expectations because of his price tag.

Near the end of the season most of those posters were willing to accept he wasn't that bad after all and that actually he can turn out to be quite a good player for us.

Still you can tell any acknowledgement of that kind is done very begrudgingly. They're still keeping the knife close by and will stick it in as soon as he doesn't kick on this season.

I'm looking forward to see those people go from 'he can be a good player' to 'wow we have a real player on our hands'.

Pepe, the rest is up to you. Make the unbelievers into believers.
I'm one of the few believers who actually watched him extensively before he joined so I knew what we were getting. But I'm not blaming people who are disappointed with him. You don't pay 70 mil for a player who struggles to establish himself as a starter, especially when we are in our position. So yeah, it's up to Pepe to convince non-believers, not the other way around.
Yet, I'm bullish for this season, I always assumed that he was a slow learner, he has a similar story to guys like Drogba or Kante. And to be fair to Arteta, I think he has helped Pepe a lot in training. We already see him more focused and a lot more involved on the defensive part, so fingers crossed, this season will be the one when it all clicks for him.
 

Oxeki

Match Day Thread Merchant
Trusted ⭐

Country: Nigeria

Player:Saliba
It was funny last season how AM kept saying Willian was better than Pepe because Arteta was starting the former.
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
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Country: England
It was funny last season how AM kept saying Willian was better than Pepe because Arteta was starting the former.
You'd never think that the way people go on, but yes this is true.
 

Tomb Bombadil

Active Member
Still you can tell any acknowledgement of that kind is done very begrudgingly. They're still keeping the knife close by and will stick it in as soon as he doesn't kick on this season.

I'm looking forward to see those people go from 'he can be a good player' to 'wow we have a real player on our hands'.

Pepe, the rest is up to you. Make the unbelievers into believers.
He's biggest problem is the transfer fee. For this kind of money we could have done much better. But this his not his problem. I also think Pepe will become a really good palyer but for £70m you want more than 'wow we have a real player on our hands'.
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England
He's biggest problem is the transfer fee. For this kind of money we could have done much better. But this his not his problem. I also think Pepe will become a really good palyer but for £70m you want more than 'wow we have a real player on our hands'.

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Out of interest why do you feel this way? What do Arsenal fans genuinely expect? I've never understood. Looking at this list I can only see a handful of "wow" players at best. These include bench/rotation players like Mahrez and Rodri as well.

Furthermore whilst I rate Pogba highly and regard him as unquestionably WC, he's not been a 90 mil player for UTD I don't think - that's been Fernandes.

We can throw in Joao Felix and Griezman, Dembele etc if we want to include World Football. This kind of mindset does make me hope we never spend big again though, it's just long and it doesn't suit us.
 

Maybe

You're wrong, no?
I think he reaches double digits in the league easy if he regularly starts, he's too potent. I fear he will be rotated a lot sadly, especially if Ødegaard or a 10 comes in. I suspect Saka right and ESR left behind Auba is Mikel's ideal starting line up.

I am not convinced he is nailed on for Arteta and even if he starts that way, it won't take much to see him dropped he'd have to play out of his skin.

Only reason he doesn't make my fantasy league team I just never know what the Arsenal line up is gonna be on match day.
I honestly don't understand what good is it rotating 2 of your best players. I get that both Saka and Pepe are best on the right, but with such a limited squad surely you would expect to find a place for Saka on the left, even behind the striker when ESR is out. You want both of them on the pitch, nothing else is an option really unless Arteta wants to be at the bottom half again before November
 

Tomb Bombadil

Active Member
Out of interest why do you feel this way? What do Arsenal fans genuinely expect? I've never understood. Looking at this list I can only see a handful of "wow" players at best. These include bench/rotation players like Mahrez and Rodri as well.

Furthermore whilst I rate Pogba highly and regard him as unquestionably WC, he's not been a 90 mil player for UTD I don't think - that's been Fernandes.

We can throw in Joao Felix and Griezman, Dembele etc if we want to include World Football. This kind of mindset does make me hope we never spend big again though, it's just long and it doesn't suit us.
1. These clubs have higher ressource than we have
2. We have bigger holes then they have
3. A "bad" transfer from another club doesn't make a bad transfer from Arsenal better

It's nothing emotional. I just think we could have spent the money better. Easy said after. And I don't think he will become the player that the £70m was worth it because we could have spent it better.

It's also always diffrent circumstances. Pogba was playing for Juve in his 4th season, won trophies, had still big potential (couldn't fulfil all of it) and a big name.
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England
1. These clubs have higher ressource than we have
2. We have bigger holes then they have
3. A "bad" transfer from another club doesn't make a bad transfer from Arsenal better

It's nothing emotional. I just think we could have spent the money better. Easy said after. And I don't think he will become the player that the £70m was worth it because we could have spent it better.

It's also always diffrent circumstances. Pogba was playing for Juve in his 4th season, won trophies, had still big potential (couldn't fulfil all of it) and a big name.
Yeah you haven't really convinced me as to why you (or others) feel entitled to whatever it is you feel entitled to for 70m. Especially when I hold up that list of players who went for similar or more.

At the time we didn't know Saka was there and we had been playing makeshift on the right. Ramsey, Miki, Iwobi, even Özil and Auba had a couple games there, a winger was definitely a hole in the squad especially with most of those personnel gone.

The 70 mil clearly didn't hurt, we've made marquee signings since and looks like that is set to continue.
 

Tomb Bombadil

Active Member
Yeah you haven't really convinced me as to why you (or others) feel entitled to whatever it is you feel entitled to for 70m. Especially when I hold up that list of players who went for similar or more.

At the time we didn't know Saka was there and we had been playing makeshift on the right. Ramsey, Miki, Iwobi, even Özil and Auba had a couple games there, a winger was definitely a hole in the squad especially with most of those personnel gone.

The 70 mil clearly didn't hurt, we've made marquee signings since and looks like that is set to continue.
I feel entitled to voice my opinion in a forum. Nothing more nothing less.

And all the players were and are "better" (if you even can compare them) in their position than Pepe in my opinion (besides Kepa). Or what do you want to say with that list?
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England
I feel entitled to voice my opinion in a forum. Nothing more nothing less.

And all the players were and are "better" (if you even can compare them) in their position than Pepe in my opinion (besides Kepa). Or what do you want to say with that list?
A lot of them cost similar and failed or not quite had the desired transformative effect in the Premiership despite being good players in their own right, all I was saying. A couple like Maguire and our own Pepe are still ongoing and could justify the fee over time.

Think only VVD on that list can make that claim to having the "wow" transformative effect, because even for all of KDB's greatness City manage to start and sustain title pushes without him.

You are free to voice your opinion anyways I just asked a question - we can agree to disagree.
 

Tomb Bombadil

Active Member
A lot of them cost similar and failed or not quite had the desired transformative effect in the Premiership despite being good players in their own right, all I was saying. A couple like Maguire and our own Pepe are still ongoing and could justify the fee over time.

Think only VVD on that list can make that claim to having the "wow" transformative effect, because even for all of KDB's greatness City manage to start and sustain title pushes without him.

You are free to voice your opinion anyways I just asked a question - we can agree to disagree.
I think all of them had a bigger impact on their team than Pepe besides Kepa, Di Maria (was sold for -10m) and Mahrez. And yes Pepe can still become much better but I doubt it from what I've seen.

What's the reason you compare this transfer with other transfer? We can agree that he's a better transfer for us than Couthino was for Barca. But why should i compare? I think from Arsenal point of view it was a bad transfer. I know, easy to say afterwards.
 
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