ARSENAL could be forced to hand Nicolas Pepe a £7.5million pay-off just to get him out of the Emirates.
And that would make the club’s former £72million record signing the ninth big name player to have his contract terminated by Mikel Arteta.
Arsenal could terminate Nicolas Pepe’s contract
Mikel Arteta has already released eight big name players as Gunners boss
Pepe, 29, has been told he has no future at Arsenal after spending last season on loan at Nice.
He has played no part in the club’s pre-season preparations and doesn’t even have a squad number after his number 19 shirt was handed to Leandro Trossard in January.
Turkish title contenders Besiktas are hoping to take the Ivorian international winger off Arsenal’s hands but are not keen on paying a transfer fee.
Pepe is hesitant to quit without receiving a large payoff because he still has a year left on his £150,000 per week contract.
Pepe joined Arsenal from Lille in 2019 while Unai Emery was still the manager, and the club had hoped to sell him for roughly £10 million. However, no offers have come in for Pepe.
In addition, Arteta has made it clear to the club’s leadership that Pepe has no place in his plans, despite the fact that he is looking for a winger to serve as Bukayo Saka’s backup.
Since Arteta replaced Emery as manager in December 2019, Arsenal have already terminated the contracts of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Willian, Sokratis, Shkodran Mustafi, Mesut Ozil, Sead Kolasinac, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Hector Bellerin.
The majority of those players received a hefty pay-off just to leave, with sporting director Edu claiming: “When a player is 26 or older, has a big salary and is not performing, he is killing you.
“They don’t have a transfer value and sometimes it’s better to pay a player to leave than it is to keep them.”
In 112 games for Arsenal, Pepe has scored 27 goals, but over half of those came off the substitutes’ bench, and he hasn’t started a Premier League game since October 2021.
As Arteta works to complete his squad in time for Saturday’s home opener against Nottingham Forest, his impending departure is a part of an Emirates clean-out.
Declan Rice, Kai Havertz, and Jurrien Timber have already cost Arsenal £205 million this summer, and they will finalize the £30 million acquisition of Brentford goalkeeper David Raya soon.
While US goalkeeper Matt Turner joins Nottingham Forest for £7 million with an additional £3 million contingent on appearances and his new team avoiding relegation, they have offset part of that expense by selling Granit Xhaka, Pablo Mari, and Auston Trusty.
Despite Arsenal rejecting a £25 million offer from Monaco for the 22-year-old USA international, striker Folarin Balogun is also likely to go.
Arsenal continues to want to collect as much as £35 million for the player, while Inter Milan has been trying to negotiate a deal for Balogun for the previous week without reaching an agreement on a fee.