According to the Telegraph, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has no intention of reintegrating Nicolas Pepe back into his first-team squad next season.

The Ivory Coast international has been a major flop at the Emirates and just spent the season back on loan in Ligue 1 with Nice. Pepe will now be returning to Arsenal after his loan spell came to an end, but it seems clear that the club’s intention is to find a buyer for him, or even terminate his contract.

Pepe joined Arsenal in the summer of 2019 from Lille. The Gunners paid a club-record £72m to bring the Ivorian to north London.

And though a player, of course, has no control over his price tag, to say that Pepe has since failed to come anywhere close to justifying such a fee would be putting it lightly.

Both Unai Emery – who has made public that he in fact wanted to sign Wilfried Zaha over Pepe – and Mikel Arteta, struggled to get the best out of the wide-man.

Pepe had a bright end to the 2020/21 Premier League campaign, which saw him net five times in his last three league outings of the season.

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