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.
Besiktas, a Turkish championship challenger, wants to sign the Ivorian winger off of Arsenal’s hands but is hesitant to pay a transfer fee.
Pepe still has a year left on his £150,000 per week deal, so he is unwilling to go without getting a big payout.
When Unai Emery was still in charge, Pepe moved to Arsenal from Lille in 2019. The club intended to sell him for around £10 million. Pepe, meanwhile, has not received any offers.
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.
Granit Xhaka, Pablo Mari, and Auston Trusty were sold to help offset some of the cost of signing US goalkeeper Matt Turner, who will join Nottingham Forest for £7 million with an additional £3 million dependant on appearances and his new team avoiding relegation.
Folarin Balogun, a striker for Arsenal, is also expected to go despite Monaco’s £25 million bid for the 22-year-old USA international being rejected.
While Inter Milan has been trying to arrange a deal for Balogun for the previous week without success, Arsenal continues to desire to get as much as £35 million for the midfielder.