Rafa and Carragher predicted Pepe's downfall years ago

It’s not easy to carry the burden of being Arsenal’s biggest flop, but Nicolas Pepe will have to use to it. After being paid 72 million pounds in 2019, the French winger was released for free a year before the end of his contract by the Gunners and signed for Trabzonspor a few days ago. Declan Rice surpassed his transfer fee this June (105 million pounds) and if he fails at the Emirates (and early suggestion is that he will not), he will carry the burden instead of Pepe. But until then, it’s safe to say that the former Nice player will probably retire with the ‘biggest flop’ nickname. And to be fair, it’s not all his fault. The transfer market (and football agents) dictate the prices and Arsenal felt back in 2019 that he is the player worth paying that sum. But he was not.

And there were people who had their doubts about the player almost immediately. Former Liverpool, Inter, Chelsea, Real and Newcastle manager Rafael Benitez spoke of Pepe back in 2019, when he arrived and scored a goal in a 3-1 win over West Ham.  

“He will play with more confidence for sure, but after two or three games if he doesn't do something more then you lose the confidence quickly. So it's important for him to have this confidence and for the rest of the team to believe that he can make the difference in games. But he has to do that in the next game or he will lose it quickly” said the Spaniard. And he was right.

A year has passed, but Arsenal's Pepe-shaped problem has not

But the club continued to go along with Pepe, since anybody can have a bad season. Then it was former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher who urged the Gunners to count their losses and let him leave back in 2021.

“Nicolas Pepe, the thing with him is not so much his age, he’s just not good enough and he’s never going to be good enough either. Arsenal need to cut their losses there” he said after Liverpool won against the Gunners. Carragher didn’t make many friends at the Emirates with this statement, but after two years, Edu and Mikel Arteta finally agreed with him and after four years, 112 appearances, 27 goals and 21 assists, the Frenchman will have to make his luck in Turkey.