July 1st 2023.
Nicolas Pepe has confirmed he will return to Arsenal in the coming days after spending last season out on loan at Nice. The Ivory Coast international moved to North London in a club-record £72 million deal from Lille in 2019 and was sent out on loan to Nice last year, where he scored six times in an injury-hampered campaign.
Pepe is still expected to be offloaded this summer, but he insists he does not have a poor relationship with manager Mikel Arteta and is willing to fight for his place with the Gunners.
Speaking to YouTube channel Colinterview, Pepe said: ‘I will return to Arsenal. I was loaned without an option to buy so I have to go back to Arsenal. I don’t know [about my future] yet. When I get back, I’ll speak with the coach and everyone and see what everyone’s ideas are and then we’ll make a decision.’
On his relationship with Arteta, he continued: ‘People say that he identified me as a player that wasn’t up to the level in his team, in his philosophy. It’s completely false. When he arrived, he had Manchester City’s philosophy. He had a squad that was filled with quality and backups in every position. When he spoke to me, he said he counted on me, he wanted me to do this or that, and you have to focus on that.’
Pepe claims he learned a lot from Arteta, saying: ‘He improved me in every way. He spoke to me the whole time, I watched videos with his assistants all the time. He really believed in me. He said I had incredible potential, so we need to extract that potential.’
The winger also suggested that his frustrations over lack of playing time lead to a strained relationship with Arteta, but that this has since improved. He concluded: ‘It’s not true that he labelled me. Not true at all. He helped me in every way, on a tactical level, in terms of game intelligence because his philosophy requires a lot of intelligence. He knew my style of play wasn’t waiting in possession, it was cutting inside, it wasn’t waiting out on the right. Before, I was a bit freer. He always wanted to help me with all of that.’
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