Nicolas Pepe joined Arsenal for a club-record fee in 2019.
- Pepe has not able to show his best form and has heavily criticize.
- The Ivory Coast star has revealed that the criticism affected him so much that he almost retired.
Former Arsenal winger Nicolas Pepe has revealed he almost quit professional football after being heavily criticised by the English following his failure at the Gunners. Which left him ‘devastated’ for a while. Pepe added that the criticism from the media made him lose confidence in himself as a footballer.
“I was very depress during my time at Arsenal and it took away the spark I had for playing. I didn’t like football, I didn’t play and I wonder. Why I was doing this. I even thought about quitting. I don’t understand
Arsenal winger Nicolas Pepe has agreed a deal with Turkish outfit Trabzonspor.
and all-but confirmed his exit with a social media post. Pepe is now into the final 10 months of his contact in north London and it is clear that he is not part of Mikel Arteta’s plans for the 2023/24 campaign. The 28-year-old spent last season out on loan in Ligue 1 with OGC Nice before returning to the Emirates Stadium earlier this summer.
Why they (the media) have to attack me like that. People are overreacting.
They call me the biggest failure in the history of ยูฟ่าเบท the Premier League ! I didn’t ask for 80 million euros to sign me, but for that amount of money they don’t care where you’re from, they just think you have to perform straight away.”
“It’s not easy for a player to come in and score 25 goals straight away and I’m not a centre-forward. I can’t play in the Premier League like that and it got me slammed. It was almost harassment, you know? I’m not really on social media but when my brother me. What people were saying about me, it hurt me. “All that
negative stuff from the media and some people at the club, they didn’t realise how much it affected me mentally and how much it affected my performance. The people who always supported me were the Arsenal fans.
Nicolas Pepe move to Arsenal with a club record fee at that time, which was a sum of 80 million euros. However, the Ivory Coast star was unable to show the same form as when playing for Lille, which led to criticism from all sides until finally Arsenal canceled his contract in 2023 before moving to Trabzonspor later.