Arsenal signing 'worst value for money in Premier League history'

Stuart Telford

• Updated: 16 Apr 2023 12:02 BST
• 3 min read

Arsenal remain on course for a first Premier League title since 2004 after some shrewd summer transfer business, but the Gunners have made some howlers in the market in recent seasons.

Arsenal remain three points clear of Manchester City at the top of the league, and Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko - who cost a combined £77 million in joining from the champions last summer - have been central to their cause.

The Gunners spent nearly as much as that on Nicolas Pepe alone when they signed the Ivorian winger from Lille in 2019, paying €80m (£72m) for his services, but he now find himself out on loan at Nice and out of contract at the end of the season.

READ: Pepe breaks silence on Arsenal treatment

Arsenal fan Darren Bent, who scored 25 goals in 79 games as a striker for Tottenham Hotspur in the early 2000s, thinks Pepe is as big a waste of money as he has seen.

— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) May 9, 2022

Pepe 'worst value for money' ever

"I said something and I thought I was being harsh when I said he would be the worst value for money signing in Premier League history," the former England international told talkSPORT.

"Transfers over £70m don't work out well, [Romelo] Lukaku hasn't worked, [Jadon] Sancho hasn't worked, the only two are Alisson and [Virgil] van Dijk off the top of my head. Pepe, £72m, awful."

READ: Arsenal want to re-sign Milan's highest earner

Pepe enjoyed his best Arsenal season in 2020/21, contributing 10 goals and assist in 29 Premier League games and adding another 10 goal-involvements in 13 games as the Gunners reached the Europa League semi-finals.

But he was ultimately undone by the emergence of academy graduate Bukayo Saka, a left-footed right winger in exactly Pepe's position who is now arguable Arsenal's most important player.

Pepe's contract won't at Arsenal, with the Gunners happy to get him off the wage bill as they previously did with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mesut Ozil.