Reaction to Nicolas Pépé speaking out about his struggles after Arsenal transfer | ESPN FC
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- ESPN FC’s Dan Thomas, Frank Leboeuf, Craig Burley and Steve Nicol reacts to Nicolas Pépé’s comments about the struggles he experienced trying to justify his then-record transfer to Arsenal, which caused him to consider quitting and have a “disgust for football."
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Still won more trophies in English football than Harry Kane
Speaks better english as well 😆
And scored more goals than Grealish and Sancho, both of whom cost more.
hahahahahahaha
I've won just as many trophies as Kane 😂
Man, Kane and Spurs live rent free in the minds of all Arsenal fans.
He couldn’t have arrived at Arsenal at a worse time, Unai wasn’t there long enough and Arteta didn’t have the time or patience for Pepe to settle in because he had to prove himself as a manager. I loved watching Pepe even if he was frustrating at times
It's way more than Unai/Arteta though. Unai wanted Zaha, a right footed left winger with PL experience, and Sanllehi pushed for Pepe, a left footed right winger with no PL experience. The best thing that happened from Pepe's transfer was the overhaul with all of the transfer structure because of how much overpayment there was for Pepe due to Sanllehi making sure his boys got outrageous agent fees. I have no issues with Pepe, he didn't work out at the team but let's face it, not much was working out at the team at that point.
I actually believe Arteta can get him back to his best and i wish he brought him back!
Items to😊 0:40 @@davidp6182
Arteta gave him time, he still struggled
Pepe wasn’t a good fit for Emery or Arteta. He doesn’t track back which is a no no for either manager
Yet he has more goals and assists than Antony and Sancho combined in less games than them
Lol 😅 united live rent free in your head ffs
Don't forget Grealish too, who cost 100mill
@@iykeharrison9161and flops like lukaku 100 mil and has just been forgotten it’s insane the hate arsenal get
@@iykeharrison9161and how many more trophies did Grealish win?
@@04foreverinvincible69nobody forgot Lukaku lol
He wasnt awful.
He was decent.
Perhaps not the top elite player.
But he was good.
He wasn’t awful! Stop it!
He is awfully bad.
He was only player that didn't shoot to empthy goal, he want to dribble to a defender that run behind him and LOST THE BALL.
He was a waste of money for 70 million
@@Rich_Torrens It is litterally how he played, I was furious watching that game.
That is Mudryk not Pepe@@someguyfromarcticfreezer6854
Unpopular opinion, but he wasn’t as big of a flop as people make him out to be. His output actually wasn’t bad, he just fell out with Arteta because he wouldn’t retain the ball. And he wouldn’t track back
Exactly
Arteta didn't fancy him
He wasn't that bad
Also..apparently he was part of the clique. The French clique led by Auba. All 3 were got rid of.
Agreed, ball retention and not tracking back were keys for Arteta and Pepe just never got that. He needed to push himself to evolve and didn't. I just don't think he had the mental toughness for the EPL.
He was also painfully one footed. Someone at the club should have flagged it. It made him super predictable in the final third
Pepe issue was never talent.
Everybody at Arsenal talk about Pepe being the most skilled & best player in training.
It was alot of external pressures from the media, from the pricetag,
Pepe played football with freedom at Lille, he had pressure as the go-to guy team depended on.
He saved Lille from relegation his debut season, he took Lille 2nd in Ligue 1 in his 2nd season.
Pepe that season was directly involved in 45% of Lille Ligue 1 goals with his G/A (34) and his G/A won his team the most league points by any individual player in Europe at an insane 25 points.
Lille was Pepe fc in there 2nd place finish.
Pepe was on penalties, he took several pressure penalties.
Pepe at Arsenal took pressure penalties, had clutch moments.
It's not mentality issue.
Pepe was major reason Arsenal won the FA Cup.
Pepe scoring clutch goal in Quarter final in 2-1 win, setup semi final opener v Man City in 2-0 win, setup FA Cup winning goal v Chelsea.
Was clutch during Arsenal run to the Europa league semi final, he scored multiple clutch goals and scored in the semi final to keep Arsenal in the tie.
Pepe had many big moments at Arsenal.
Pepe had 48 G/A in 75 starts.
Pepe just met Saka and Mikel then met Mikel that's What happen bounced up a star boy who earned the trust of all his coaches and fans ...
If young football fans have not watched Steve Nicol play, they need to watch his videos…what a quality player he was. Transformed the wing back position
It depends on the player
mentality is all
That one game where he scored what 2 free kicks in a row was insane, shame he couldn’t get it going when needed.
Pepe was not awful, he just wasn't a 72m player, he's better than Anthony for example, had way more output than him
Just like Antony isn't a 100m player. What's your point
@@sahilbhardwaj441 Instead of trying to be smart, go back and read my original comment, there you shall find the answer you seek. 🙄 Before I hand I know you won't reply to tell me you've found the answer because at that point you'd have realised you should read things properly.
@@MorrisonNo8I'm obviously not as much of a genius as you trying to figure out the subtleties of your gospel which you've preached. You're the one bringing out Antony as an example and trying to justify Pepe. Pepe wasn't good enough for Arsenal and you move on. Comparing the output of him with Antony trying to justify but he's not worse than this other player I know about is just bollocks when they don't even play for teams which even remotely have a similar style of football.
I'm sure you'll not reply by telling me you've got the point either.
Not everyone will cut it at the top , simple as
True, but Arsenal are not at the top, let's not forget that.
Last time arsenal was on the top you wasn’t born 😂😂😂
@@Why-are-you-gee That's quite unlikely. His oldest uploaded video is from 2010. Arsenal last won the title in 2004 so if your statement is correct, he would have been 6 when uploading that video. I find that to be unlikely but please explain your reasoning if you believe otherwise.
@@pikachu8322nd best team in england
@@youngsavage6240 Does that come with a trophy?
Pepe situation he was very unlucky.
Came at the wrong time, under the wrong manager at the wrong pricetag.
Pepe was a gross overpay with Unai Emery wanting Wilfred Zaha instead.
Pepe wasn't Emery choice & Emery was unhappy with club not getting him Zaha.
Raul Sanlehi wanted Pepe, he structured the 75m deal, 3 installments (25m payed each year for 3 years).
Raul Sanlehi lost his job cause of that Pepe deal.
Pepe started his Arsenal career postively, good performances v Bournmouth, Spurs, Liverpool away.
However he wasn't scoring during that good period & arsenal weren't good enough or playing to his strengths.
Pepe v United at Old Trafford was his first disaster performancr, Emery benched him, that same game Saka started on LW was phenomenal & setup equaliser in 1-1 draw.
Emery was never keen on him & never gave him a fair run in the team without benching him or not playing him, but the criticism was piling up.
Antony at United got less criticism for playing 10x worse, producing less, scoring less, creating almost nothing.
Media was on Pepe back, slaughtering him as the posterboy of flops, throwing 72m price tag every game.
They already labelling him a flop very early on.
Combine that with how poor Arsenal was he became an easy target of ridicule.
Pepe became a scapegoat with media + pundits targetting him & almost bullying him during his debut season.
Pepe was being treated by the media like he was a genuine world class player.
Even with World class players media are never that harsh, particularly English players.
Similar to what Sancho endured, except Sancho was purely social media hate, british media weren't on him.
Pepe was a 30m player, a fair price, he may have become a success.
Media were looking at him as Van Dijk, Allison because of the pricetag.
If Pepe came at that same pricetag at Liverpool he wouldn't have got ridiculed.
At Arsenal he has to be a world class or he was an easy target for an underperforming team.
When team is good the flops don't get highlighted.
Thats what made it easy for VVD + Allison who didn't come to save a bad team.
Also how a 65m Naby Keita can get away with media scrutiny.
yep, this.
If Arteta treated Kai the way he treated Pepe
We would have on our hands the biggest flop to ever happen in all of football history
Kai was utterly rubbish
But Arteta wanted it to work
Cos it was him that spent the money
And look at Kai shining now
He gave no such time to Pepe
Pepe was not as bad as Kai was (not even close)
💯 he was clearly better than Havertz. Just that he wasn't Arteta's player.
I suspect that Havertz worked much harder in training than Pepe.
Havertz always worked hard off the ball, even when he wasn’t producing going forward. Pepe never ever worked hard off the ball.
Havertz shining?? He cost Germany in the Euros, and he'll never be a top quality player. How the heck does he miss a chip, to an open goal, on his dominant foot!? Guy was awful all tournament, I don't understand how Arsenal fans rate him.
@@chriskey7440 he's just had his best season in the Premier League
See, Havertz won't pull out rocks
But he was largely horrendous at Chelsea - he's decent now
And he's a beast off the ball (very hard worker)
Pepe had a decent first 18 months, helped win the FA cup, then in Artetas first transfer window he buys Willian and benched Pepe, I can see why he lost confidence. I assumed Arteta would work with the him but after seeing Arteta for 5 years in management and you see the likes of Fabio V, Lakonga, Tavares, Willian, Mari, Havertz, Turner, Runnerson, Trusty Zinchenko etc I somewhat understand. But that transfer should be a lesson because Emery wanted Zaha but they went for Pepe and someone in the club made money on that transfer, the lesson is get the player the manager wants and not a player you get good installments on and get make a % on.
Pepe was a victim of new management. Arteta preferred Saka. 😊
Pepe was a victim of the unrelenting vitriol towards Arsenal and all connected to Arsenal
Arteta likes saka because he performed
Arsenal rightly expected more from Pepe due to his CZcams videos and the price tag
Agreed but was.not supported like Kai havertz was. He was not awful. ESPN catch your falling self. 🧦
Saka came up within Arsenal, knew the system and what was expected of him. He also trains very hard every day , applies himself and does the defensive work needed.
This was one of the best segments and I appreciate the honesty 🙏🏿
He was decent but his price tag made people judge him far too harshly, he came when Emery wasn't doing well and Arteta couldn't have the patience to retrain him, Xhaka and many others and the fact that Saka just filled that role for a few games and was excellent there didn't help his situation. He's far better than most and it's the harsh Arsenal fan critics and rival fan critics and pundits that were making him seem like the worst ever player, when there were and far worse that cost more it's just bad timing honestly, because if he came like a year or two later he would of fit right in
Are ESPN still too scared to talk about the Enzo Fernandez situation? It's one of the biggest stories in football right now.
I want to hear from Shaka as he's extremely articulate and wise on these issues. But we also need to hear condemnation or at the very least consternation from FC's European pundits. There is no place in football for this sort of behavior from the Argentinian team. This is beyond banter.
If Enzo was a United player, best believe they will talk about it the same day
What about it? Argentines are known to be racist.. We act like this is a lie? 😮
No they only have time to talk about ten hug and man united lol
@ifeanyimba6301 they'd be talking about it 24/7 ,7 days a week
I really felt for him during his time. The team was quite bad at the time honestly. And in fairness to him, his performances weren't that bad. Definitely not as bad as the rap he got. He wasn't awful. The team was poor. Nobody from that team is remaining in the squad except Saka. And then Saka was LWB. Arteta came in and didn't favor him and that's Artetas right. But the player wasn't a bad player. He produced more than Havertz did initially.And Havertz came into a settled side. Pepe came into a poor team.
How well has he done wherever he went to after Arsenal ?
It's not even that he was asked to defend to help out the back line and he did not want to
@jamesoluoch1836 I really don't know. But he was doing quite well before he came to Arsenal. It's quite difficult to shake the perception of being a failed record signing for Arsenal. I'm just thinking back to the period when he was actually in the Arsenal team and getting games. He was one of the most productive with goals and assists. Granted, that might not be saying much because of how bad the team was then. I reckon there must have been other qualities that made Arteta freeze him out like that.
@shemgreenidge7105 It might be as simple as that. And Arteta has the right to demand what he wants for the good of the team. But as an attacking player, he always looked like he could make something happen.
Disagree shame Laca-Pepe-Yang never banged
Kai Havertz is a very good example of how to keep going and find the form you know you have. 8:44
am shocked they found something other than united today
He is a good player and great talent. I still like him. Go check his first season highlights for arsenal.
Played Willian and Nelson over Pepe when he had 48G/A in 75 starts.
Arteta often played Nelson over Pepe. He was decent at Arsenal. I generally think it was the brown envelopes behind this deal that made Arteta not push Pepe to perform.
Not every player hits the ground running in the Premier League. That's life. Give the guy a break. He wasn't the first and certainly won't be the last. Players and clubs should be more helpful.
But he never got running. It's not like he started slow and then was goodl he was bad, and then continued to be bad.
@@russellward4624 I guess you are entitled to your opinion. Just stated mine. We move on and wish the lad the best of luck.
Mudryk comes to mind now.
He was just the wrong type of player for Arsenal. Pepe was best in a counter attacking team where he had space and the ability to play 1 vs 1 against his opponent. But Arsenal played a high intensity press and possession based football, something not suited to Pepe. He lacked aggression and the ability to press to a high intensity which was key. Even though he was most effective in a counter attacking system, was an excellent dribbler he didnt quite have that absolute electric burst of pace and high top speed most of the top wingers like Salah, Mane had and what Arsenal really needed at the time.
Truth
Are people forgetting a player by the name of Saka really pushed him outta the team??
always felt so bad for this guy
Listen pepe is really good player. He really is to me mikel didn't have the time and effort as how he has in kai havertz.
Clearly not or he'd have succeeded at arsenal. He's a mediocre player.
Arteta disrespected Pepe coz even though he had brought in saka he would have still played pepe.its the managers who flop players.
See how yaya was disrespected often.
Coutinho passed through the same.
Vander beek has passed through the same trauma and with the right manager at girona I hope he thrives.
Isco is now proving at betis.
The press plus a biased manager can kill you as footballer.
I bet u that saka at the England national team has passed through the same but as u said his mentality is strong but he has often been attacked by the press.
Great insight from the boys on this one
Pepe was way better than he got credit for. His price was big but his output was better than other big money “flops.” It is a shame he had to suffer for Arsenal’s transition from Emery to Arteta.
I don’t think he was given a full opportunity by arteta. Don’t get me wrong arteta tried but not like with Kai havertz.
It's about the environment, timing, support, and the biggest one of all culture.
NP19 was just a depressive type character that never played with a free mind..great talent that was just never happy. Shame i wished he would snap out of it because he showed signs of genius. But u could tell he wad always double thinking himself
The money he pocketed at Arsenal on a weekly basis , he can't find that anywhere else for the rest of his career
That's not even the point
140k a week isn’t massive. We have bench players on 100k
Saudi league?
Should not have got Wilian...given this man a chance instead. Arteta lost trust.
Im sure everyone at the club was like Huh? This dude aint all that. £72m??
Lol.
I haven't watched ESPN since the season was over, I had to watch this because some of the pundits here are just bullies. They didn't dissapoint in trying to cover their bullish acts by saying Pepe didn't perform. It is way way more than that. These guys are literally kids who have no or little education, wisdom or maturity.
There really shouldn't be that much reverb even with no apparent accoustic treatment in Frank's room.
Self belief was lacking …. When you are your own worst critic… you suffer @Nicolas Pepe
That "what is ya do when you score" bit sounds like a friendly riling up. But the sort that is meant to get you improve yourself. Maybe in the modern sensitive culture that is somehow bad but I have personally benefited from a friendly, well-meaning riling up.
Lille be selling people duds lol Yorro might be an imposter 😭
He does concede goals badly too sometimes
Love how Dan subtly and hypothetically leaned into how petty he is...
He wasnt an Arteta player, Willian was fucking up the whole season and getting the Havertz treatment, while Pepe was called an idiot publicly for his red card as well as Xhaka being protected for his soon to follow red card.
Luiz put his hands on Torres head and prayed for him. Some players play as a team. Pepe could have and should have seek assistance with a brother within his team-if he didn’t
He wasn’t bad he was just frustrating to watch sometimes. 100% skill but no end product. Only towards the end of his career in arsenal he started to pick up so he was improving but not fast enough
Finally a break from the Manchester united hate
womp womp
Hazard to Real Madrid type of failure of a transfer
Hazard pretty much retired on arrival
hilarious take. someone doesn’t know ball
@kylesenninger8542 yeah those transfers aren’t even comparable. Hazard was on his last year of his contract, before wing bought for 100m, feeling good after a good season with Chelsea and World Cup with Belgium. Got too gassed with himself and let himself go a bit over summer. Then used the actual football season to get back into shape then the series of injuries began. A shame really.
@@enareagbor3713 couldn’t agree more
He was OK, the price tag just put excessive pressure, if he was a 20M signing , he would have been deemed a good success
Pressure makes diamonds or it crushes you @ Pepe
I just don't think that Pepe was mentally and physically tough enough for the EPL. This is probably the classic case of a player who relied on his natural talent too much and could not push himself to the level needed for the team and league he found himself in.
Pepe wasn’t an awful player at Arsenal. He had to compete with Saka. Now how many players can match the brilliance of the star boy
The Arsenal dressing room at the time was probably in one of its worst states it been in.
I can’t help but think the other french players at the time didn’t help, the likes of Guendouzi, Aubameyang, Lacazette etc.
But centrally put the blame on them, he’s got to take accountability of his performances and attitude
48 G/A in 75 starts
I’m shock 😮 espn talking about other club then manchester united
He the first mega buy by arsenal. All arsenal fans including me. So much expectation and excitement of him. Is not normal for club like arsenal to splash cash like that until they bought pepe. That the pressure he has.
He was inconsistent and already mentally fragile (looking with hindsight), but once a very young and fearless Saka from the academy switched to the marquee signing's position and flourished, the writing was on the wall for Pepe.
The buck stops with Sanllehi though, not the player.
Am happy that Pépé.
Is very difficult to survive English reporters
Loads of hypocrisy being spewed all over your the place, I’m a life long Arsenal fan and Pepe didn’t get a fair shake at Arsenal by any stretch and the add ons and bonuses and clauses in his contract may have had loads to do with that. My point is, his failures weren’t solely down to him, the club failed him as well.
03/2004 was when Arsenal sat at the top and maybe 2006 😢. Pepe was poorly used imo, I felt he was not suited to our system. Klopp would have got more out of Pepe
i actually thought he didnt have too much of a bad start but he just couldn't take himself higher
It's not Pepe's fault it the fault of the selectors
If he has opened up to Mikel am sure he would have gotten the support ….. @ Pepe
Saka over pepe anyday. And watching him he seemed to never give 100%
THE antony before antony
Arteta also gonna make Vieira worse than he is by not giving him enough minutes. Or trust.
If this was Football Manager his *Determination* would be about 8 (20)
As a fans were all struggling on him😂😂
He definitely wasn’t awful at Arsenal, just inconsistent
The guy was not a tighter
He also didn’t listen to coaching
His body language was terrible, he took too many touches in a passing system and wasn’t clinical enough
He just wasn’t good enough
I have pressure in my job .
Funny thing is he was paid for falling !
Mentality
He wasn't a bad signing....check his stats....he just went to arsenal at a bad time n the manager change didn't help....only 3 r so players are there now from the emery era so that's should tell u somn
How does this guy live with himself being that negative and always trying to put others down. There is a difference to between being critical and just trying or enjoying to put others down. this craig!
So are we going to pretend that Espn will not talk about the racist chants by Argentinian players...it shows were their loyalty lies guess.
Are you kidding… I lived in London for 2 years when they bought him. I’ve seen this dude at EVERY NIGHTCLUB on Coptic street. He didn’t give a dam
Signing Willian was his impediment
Pepe gets the “it’s not the price tag” excuse from Frank.. but Anthony gets ripped with United!! The bias with this channel is astounding… I really don’t get it
Still poor in Turkiye, he should do self introspection maybe he'll find a solution otherwise I see him sulking taking the Hazard's way in Madrid!
He's the opposite of an Arteta player.
Massively overpriced due to blatant corruption and criminality behind the scenes.
Not Pepe's fault.
He was just another Ligue 1 african football scammer.
Still won more trophies than messi in the premier league and NOT Ronaldo !!
He denied a transfer to keep his large wage. I don't feel sorry for him.
What a pathetic excuse, he couldn't even bother to apply himself once he had opportunities away from Arsenal and even now he's still young enough but completely useless to his current club.
He THOUGHT about it until he remembered he was earning over 100k a week lol weak mentaility.
Who was the bigger bust? Pepe for Arsenal or NDombele for Spurs??A?A?A
Pepe got a trophy 🏆 😤
Over 4 million a year and your thinking about quitting yeah right 😂
These are the people Pepe is talking about, these useless pundits like Craig and blinds … they always sound awful..
Pepe was no where near awful
What words would you then use for :
Anthony
Mudryck
Hojlund
Even Sancho
These guys were/are way worse than him
His wing was a problematic wing for all opposition
And he was a standout performer in the FA Cup Arteta won
People exaggerate
He wasn't where we wanted but he wasn't awful
He still was our 3rd best influential attacker then behind only Auba & Laca
In Man Utd You'll pick Bruno as most influential attacker, then Rashford, then Garnacho, one might even pick McTominay before picking Anthony
What word should we use to describe Anthony then ?
that just means he doesn't have the mentality!! He is weak minded and thats what Arteta saw! Arteta tried to give him chances but he didn't live up to the heavy expectations!!!
RS is responsible, I'm sure he's enjoying the McMansion and Ferrari he bought with the totally legitimate cash he got from it 😂💩🤡
Footballers now a days do more talking than Football
Should've boughtZaha for £70 mill then got Pepe instead. Haha,fools messed it up,delighted for them,an absolute disaster. Zaha would've made a difference,they showed interest then bottled it.
Can you be a big club without ever winning the European Cup?
yes my club is ac milan and we have 7, arsenal don't have any but still a big club, dont let tribalism make u biased
No.
@@michaels3953 Arsenal is not a big club.
ESPN still wont talk about the Enzo situation because its their son's country. Imagine Ronaldo's teammates did this
They're awfully selective
You are right. That's weird they are not talking about this cause it's a big news
So players in the modern football nag more than annoying housewives.