Nizaar Kinsella
BBC Sport football news reporter

Nicolas Pepe has come to terms with his Arsenal exit and the price tag that warped perceptions around his performances, but admits “it wasn’t easy”.

When people mention the Ivory Coast international, now 29, the then club-record £72m fee to sign the winger from Lille soon follows.

And it is a number, Pepe admits, he struggled to handle.

“It wasn’t easy at all. And the fans weren’t happy with how I was performing,” he told BBC Sport.

“When I first joined, the fans weren’t really judging my performances, they were judging the price tag. But I think I did some great things while at Arsenal. I don’t regret my time there.

“But my transfer fee to the club was the highest one they’d signed, so they expected me to score in each match.”

Arsenal signed Pepe in 2019 after a sensational season with Lille, during which he scored 23 goals and managed 12 assists, but he never approached the same strike rate in England.

He played his last game for Arsenal in 2022 and, after a season-long loan at Nice, is now without a club after leaving Turkish side Trabzonspor in the summer, having only joined them on a free transfer from Arsenal last September.

Image source, Getty Images