Côte d’Ivoire international Nicolas Pepe has revealed that Arsenal fans expected him to score in every game due to his hefty transfer fee.
Pepe became Arsenal’s record signing under Unai Emery in the summer of 2019, joining from Ligue 1 club Lille for £72 million. Despite a stellar campaign with Lille, Pepe struggled to meet expectations at Arsenal under both Emery and his successor, Mikel Arteta.
“It wasn’t easy at all. And the fans weren’t happy with how I was performing,” Pepe, 29, told BBC Sport in an interview. “When I first joined, the fans weren’t judging my performances, they were judging the price tag. But I think I did some great things while at Arsenal. I don’t regret my time there. But my transfer fee to the club was the highest one they’d signed, so they expected me to score in each match.”
In a separate interview with French newspaper L’Equipe, Pepe spoke about the criticism he faced: “It was almost harassment. I don’t look at social media much, but if my brother told me ‘This is what they said about you’, it would affect me unconsciously. It also came from the media or certain members of the club. They don’t realize that it can affect the mental state, the family, and it affects performance. The only people who have always supported me are the Arsenal fans. At Arsenal, I suffered a kind of trauma, as if my passion had been ripped away from me, I had a disgust for football. I doubted myself to the point that I thought about quitting everything. I wondered how they could have been so relentless in their attacks on me. They even called me the biggest flop in the history of the Premier League. But I refused to mope.”
Pepe’s tenure with Trabzonspor was marred by injuries, as was his loan at Nice during the 2022-23 season. Now ready for a fresh challenge, he added: “We listen to all offers, and then it’s my representatives who’ll let me know a club’s real intentions, and if it’s not a serious offer, I don’t hear about it. Let’s see what happens. But I’m not ruling out a return to England.”
