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Arsenal may reportedly have to dish out £7.5 million in compensation fee to Nicolas Pepe to get rid of him this summer.
According to the Sun, the Gunners transfer-listed the player and were expecting offers of around £10 million for him. Besiktas have emerged as a potential suitor but aren't willing to pay a transfer fee for him.
Pepe, who earns £150,000 a week and has one year left on his contract at the Emirates, isn't willing to leave without a compensation fee. The Gunners paid £72 million to sign him from LOSC Lille Metropole in 2019 — a fee which was a club-record amount until Declan Rice's £105 million switch last month.
Pepe has registered 27 goals and 21 assists in 112 games for Arsenal. But the last time he played a Premier League game for the full 90 minutes was in November 2021.
The 28-year-old Ivory Coast international was loaned to OGC Nice last season where he managed eight goals in 28 games across competitions. Arsenal, meanwhile, have Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli as their trusted wingers, with Leandro Trossard providing competition.
It seems Mikel Arteta has given up on Pepe but it remains to be seen if Arsenal will pay him a hefty fee just to get rid of him a year in advance.
Arsenal start their season in perfect fashion with Community Shield win
Arsenal started the 2023-24 season by winning a trophy as they beat Manchester City in the FA Community Shield on 6 August.
Manchester City thought they had won their third Community Shield under Pep Guardiola after Cole Palmer's stunning 77th-minute strike handed them the lead. The score remained the same deep into stoppage time before Leandro Trossard's deflected shot crept into the net to make it 1-1.
Arsenal were ruthless in the resulting shootouts, scoring all four of their spot kicks. Bernardo Silva was the only Manchester City to dispatch his penalty kick, with Rodri and Kevin de Bruyne failing to find the net.
The win meant the Gunners won the Community Shield for the 17th time in their history (16 outright wins, 1 shared). They have won it six times since their last Premier League title, which came in the 2003-04 season.
The Gunners, who finished runners-up to Manchester City last season, begin the new Premier League campaign with a home game against Nottingham Forest on 12 August.
