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Ivorian footballer, Nicolas Pepe has revealed that he almost stopped playing professional football due to the frustration he suffered at Arsenal.
Recall that Arsenal broke their transfer record on August 1, 2019, by paying €80 million to sign Nicolas Pepe from Lille with the expectation that he would be one of the best things to happen to the club.
Unfortunately for the 29-year-old right-winger, he couldn’t fit into coach Mikel Arteta’s system and had to go on loan at OGC Nice in 2022 due to his lack of game time at the Emirates Stadium.
After spending one season away from the club, he couldn’t still establish himself under coach Arteta, as the Gunners decided to terminate his contract on mutual grounds on June 30, 2023.
“I suffered a kind of trauma with Arsenal. It was as though they had taken away my passion for football,” Nicolas Pepe told L’Equipe.
“I felt disgusted by the game. I was no longer playing, and I asked myself why I was doing this job.
“I felt so many doubts and thought about packing it all in. I asked myself why people were attacking me so angrily.
“They went as far as calling me the biggest flop in Premier League history. But I refused to mope about it.
“I wanted something different when I left Arsenal last summer, and I didn’t care a damn about the money.”
After his failed spell at Arsenal, Nicolas Pepe joined Turkish club, Trabzonspor on a free transfer in September 2023 with the hope of rejuvenating his football career. However, he didn’t last more than a season at the club before he parted ways with the side.
Currently, Pepe, who has a transfer market value of €8.5 million, is without a club, and no concrete suitors are lining up for his signature at the time of writing.
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