Thursday, July 18, 2024 - Former Arsenal winger, Nicolas Pepe has revealed he considered quitting football amid a wave of criticism after he struggled to justify his £72million move to the club.
In 2019, Pepe joined the Gunners in a
club-record transfer from Lille, with the Premier League club paying
an initial £20m with the remaining £52m spread over five years.
Pepe, now 29, made 112 appearances in all competitions for Arsenal and scored
27 times.
The winger's contract was terminated last
summer with the Gunners keen to remove him from the wage bill.
Pepe admitted in an interview with
French newspaper L'Equipe that he had considered quitting the game
due to the weight of criticism he received.
The winger said he 'didn't ask for
the £72m fee to be put on him', suggesting the price tag led to him receiving a
'wave of criticism'.
'It was almost harassment. I don't look at
social media much, but if my brother told me "this is what they said about
you", it would affect me unconsciously,' Pepe said.
'It also came from the media or from
certain members of the club. They don't realise that it can affect the mental
state, the family and it affects performance.
'The only people who have always supported
me are the Arsenal fans.
'At Arsenal, I suffered a kind of
trauma, as if my passion had been ripped away from me, I had a disgust for
football. I doubted myself to the point that I thought about quitting
everything.
'I wondered how they could have been
so relentless in their attacks on me. They even called me the biggest flop in
the history of the Premier League. But I refused to mope.'
Pepe had scored eight goals and
provided 10 assists in 41 matches during his first season at Arsenal under boss
Unai Emery in 2019-20.
The Ivorian winger enjoyed his best
campaign at the Emirates the following season by netting 16 goals and chipping
in with five assists in 47 games.
He gradually slipped down the pecking order
at Arsenal the following year, featuring 23 times but making only five starts.
Pepe moved on loan to Nice for
the 2022-23 season, before joining Turkish side Trabzonspor last year
after his Gunners deal was terminated.
The winger is now a free agent after
opting against renewing his one-year deal at Trabzonspor.
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