Forget Nicolas Pepe’s price-tag and let him breath, proclaims Thierry Henry
Arsenal legend Thierry Henry has asked critics and fans to ignore Nicolas Pepe’s price-tag and instead give the forward a chance to find his footing. The Ivorian was the club’s marquee summer signing but has struggled to adapt to the Premier League and has contributed to seven goals in 15 games.
Despite rumours of a €40 million budget, Arsenal still walked out of the summer transfer window with shrewd additions to their squad. That included William Saliba – loaned back to St Etienne for the remainder of the 2019/20 season – David Luiz, Kieran Tierney, Gabriel Martinelli, Dani Ceballos and Nicolas Pepe himself. However, the Ivorian was the marquee piece from the collection with him arriving for a club-record fee of €80 million and after a season where he contributed to 33 goals in the Ligue 1 alone.
However, Pepe has struggled to make an instant impact for the club with the 24-year-old’s brightest moments coming in the Europa League. His performances there have hinted at the quality that lies dormant within him and Arsenal legend Thierry Henry went on to admit that Pepe is the real deal. The Frenchman, who is the club’s top goalscorer, also added that the Ivorian needs to ignore any critics and forget about his price-tag but instead give the forward a chance to find his footing in a new league.
"When you arrive like that, you’re always going to be talked about, and people are always going to target you. He needs to make sure he doesn’t listen to that and go out and perform. People need to forget about the price tag. He didn’t ask to be bought for that amount of money himself. It’s not always easy to arrive in a team, adapt to a new style of play,” Henry told Yahoo Sport UK.
"The Premier League, as we know, is not the same as the French League or any other league, by the way. So he needs to adapt to that. We need to give him time."
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