When it comes to Nicolas Pepe and Arsenal, everything always comes back to The Number.
£72million. €80million. $90million.
Pepe’s transfer fee, whatever the currency, made him the most expensive player in Arsenal’s history when they signed him from French club Lille in the summer of 2019. It was a big, splashy figure, the kind that naturally captures the attention. It also turned out to be a millstone around Pepe’s neck.
The Ivorian forward was 24 years old at the time. Videos of his thrilling performances in Ligue 1 had quickened Arsenal pulses. But he was still a work in progress, someone who — by his own admission — needed time to adapt to the demands of a more competitive league and a different country.
The Number, though, didn’t allow for that.
Pepe had his moments in north London — more than you might remember, more than the snarky listicles of Premier League ‘flops’ would have you believe — but could never seem to escape the elevated expectation levels that came with that fee. When he left Arsenal, initially on loan to French club Nice and then, finally, to Trabzonspor of Turkey in September last year, it came as a relief to all parties.
Just over a year later, Pepe is in the early stages of what looks a lot like a career revival. He is now playing La Liga for Villarreal, the surprise package of the Spanish season so far. Playing well, too, even if a thigh injury kept him out of Sunday’s 2-2 away draw against Osasuna. Little wonder he cuts a relaxed figure when he joins The Athletic for an interview in a quiet corner of their training complex.
He says he is happy to talk about Arsenal, happy to talk about The Number and the feelings it evokes in him. And so, calmly and with no hint of rancour, he does.
“When a club pays that much for you, the little details don’t matter,” Pepe says. “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.”
Pepe’s Arsenal story started with a phone call. Two, in fact. This was in the summer of 2019; the young winger had just completed his second season with Lille, scoring 22 goals and setting up 11 more in the league as they finished second, albeit 16 points behind Paris Saint-Germain.
That return, coupled with Pepe’s crowd-pleasing natural flamboyance, put him on the radars of some of Europe’s top clubs. By the July, though, an initial wide field of suitors had narrowed to two main options.
“I had a call with Carlo Ancelotti, who was Napoli coach at the time,” recalls Pepe. “It lasted five minutes. Half an hour later, I received another call, this time from Unai Emery (Arsenal’s manager at the time). 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.”
Things started relatively well for Pepe. There were assists against Tottenham, Eintracht Frankfurt and Bournemouth, and a crucial penalty against Aston Villa. He single-handedly dragged Arsenal to a 3-2 win against Vitoria Guimaraes in the Europa League, coming on as a late substitute and scoring two gorgeous free kicks in the space of 13 minutes.
Nicolas Pépé with not one but 𝗧𝗪𝗢 free-kicks for @Arsenal, on this day in 2019 🎯🎯#UEL pic.twitter.com/HkcAhQk3rL
— UEFA Europa League (@EuropaLeague) October 24, 2021
Emery’s sacking, two and a half months into the season, was a blow, but did not immediately put the skids on Pepe’s progress. He scored the opening goal in the first win of the Mikel Arteta era, at home against Manchester United on New Year’s Day 2020 and inspired a 4-0 rout of Newcastle the following month. He played 90 minutes in the FA Cup final against Chelsea, setting up Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s winner.
“I had some good moments,” Pepe says with a smile. “A lot of those memories will stay with me.”
He finished that first season with eight goals to his name in all competitions. He then doubled that in his second year — a decent enough return, given his position. There were issues bubbling under the surface, however. The main one was his relationship with Arteta.
“With Arteta, it wasn’t… well, it was good at the start,” Pepe says, the endearing laugh somewhat undermining any pretence of diplomacy.
“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.”
Then there was what Pepe perceived as sustained criticism of his performances, particularly online from fans. Many footballers avoid social media altogether. Others claim they take abuse from the public with a pinch of salt. For Pepe, though, it felt extremely personal.
“It was severe and unjust,” he says. “I saw a lot of nasty comments. When you see what people think of you, it affects you and your family, whether you like it or not.”
The criticism was not just distressing in the moment; it also started to change the way Pepe did his job.
“You see the effects on the pitch when you’re not right mentally,” he explains. “Sometimes I would go out to play already feeling annoyed. And then you can’t do things you know how to.
“I’m a player who takes risks. But when you have all that in your head, you try not to be too daring. I didn’t want to make a certain pass or try a dribble because I knew that people would get on my back if I did. So you do the minimum: control the ball, look for someone who is unmarked, maybe pass sideways or backwards.
“You want to show what you can do, to shut people’s mouths, have some pride. But if your head is not right and it doesn’t work, you start playing backwards, unconsciously. It’s not about lacking character. I have a lot of character and a lot of pride. But sometimes it’s difficult. You get the ball and you pass it backwards because you’ve already had to withstand so much criticism.”
At a certain point, Pepe says, the self-doubt and the hate created a snowball effect.
“You think, ‘If these fans are criticising me, maybe my team-mates are, too’,” he continues. “So many things go through your head. You say to yourself, ‘OK, maybe I have a psychological problem here, something like that’. But people don’t see that. They just tell you you’re not moving enough, you’re not up for it, you’re not as sharp as before. That’s what they see. But you just feel different because you have these things in your head.
“It’s frustrating when people continue to knock you down when you’re already struggling. I was not used to being criticised so much.”
At which point we must return to The Number.
If the criticism was coloured by the magnitude of that transfer fee, so too was Pepe’s reaction to it all.
“You know you cost €80million and that everyone will be talking about you if things don’t go well,” he says. “Unconsciously, it plays on your mind. You can claim it doesn’t get to you, but it does. It’s one of the difficulties of football today. There are players out there who are very good but perhaps cost too much. But that’s not their fault. It’s not their fault.”
Arsenal, he says, provided support. But he cannot help but wonder how things might have turned out differently.
“There was this relentlessness, as if people didn’t care about the adaptation process,” he says. “It was, ‘You have to perform, you have to perform.’
“It’s like I served as an example for those that followed. Clubs now think, ‘If we’re going to pay big for a player, we have to protect him.’ Arsenal protected me, but it was like it was the first time.
“Today, there are players who cost a lot more than me and are producing less than I did, but they don’t get criticised. I think my move was shocking to some people, in the sense that it was the first big fee (paid by Arsenal). I think if they paid the same amount for me now, I wouldn’t be criticised in the same way.”
There was no immediate uptick for Pepe after he left Arsenal. He was happy to move on loan to Nice for the 2022-23 season but a series of injuries prevented him from gathering momentum. Trabzonspor offered a fresh start last summer, but it was not exactly a dream move.
“I didn’t have any choice but to go there,” Pepe says. “All of the other markets closed, and there was only Turkey (where the transfer deadline is later). I thank them for giving me a chance — I can’t overlook that — but I felt quite removed from the big European leagues.”
When Villarreal offered him the chance to play in La Liga this August, Pepe grasped it with both hands. While he is not an undisputed starter for them, he has produced a few flashes of the old magic and believes he can make his mark in the months ahead.
“Spanish football is a lot calmer — more technical than England and France,” he says. “That’s what suits me the best. I think you can see that out on the pitch. I have a good understanding with my team-mates and I feel at ease here. I feel good.”
It helps that Villarreal are currently flying along under coach Marcelino Garcia Toral.
The club known as the Yellow Submarine because of the colour of their home kit are fourth in the table, with a game in hand over two of the sides above them. (Their November 2 home match against Rayo Vallecano was postponed due to the devastating flooding in the Valencia region, a few days after The Athletic’s visit.) Yesterday, they fought back from two goals down on the road to draw with fifth-placed Osasuna, securing their point with a stoppage-time penalty.
“Results have been good,” says Pepe. “With Marcelino, there’s a lot of communication. He stands out for how much he talks with his players. Whether you’re playing or not, he’s really… invested in you. That’s something that helps me a lot. He is very meticulous, a perfectionist. We work a lot on tactics, to understand what he wants and why. He’s created an alchemy between the players here.”
As for Pepe himself, he clearly feels at peace in his new surroundings.
“For me, it’s just a pleasure, mentally, to be back out on the pitch, enjoying myself,” he says. “That’s the main thing for me: having fun. All the rest — the statistics, the assists, the goals — will come naturally.
“It’s definitely a new chapter for me. It’s a new league, a new culture, a new experience. I feel like I’m back at the heart of the action.”
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
