ANOTHER club joins race to sign €80m Arsenal flop and a deal is FINALLY close

Tom Weber

Updated: 7 Sep 2023 11:10 CDT
3 min read

Mikel Arteta and the Arsenal badge on a red and black abstract background — © ProShots

Trabzonspor have joined the race to sign Nicolas Pepe, according to French media and Fabrizio Romano.

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It feels like this has been said all summer only for nothing to materialise but now it really does seem as though Arsenal's former record signing is finally on his way out.

The Ivorian does not feature in Mikel Arteta's plans and Arsenal have at times even considered terminating his contract in order to get him off the books. The 28-year-old spent last season on loan at Nice in Ligue 1 and he appeared close to a move to Besiktas over the summer, but he ultimately spurned the Turkish giants - twice!

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Instead, Saudi clubs began being credited with an interest in the winger and Al-Shabab reportedly even made an offer that Arsenal were ready to accept. Now, however, it appears as though Pepe is heading to Anatolia after all.

Pepe set for Trabzonspor

That is at least according to Footmercato, which reports that Trabzonspor are now in talks with Arsenal and Pepe, The Turkish transfer window remains open until September 15, so there is still more than enough time to strike a deal.

However, it seems that this time won't be needed. Fabrizio Romano has confirmed that talks are taking place. "Nicolas Pepe, not convinced by Saudi approaches — deal not happening, his priority is now to join Trabzonspor," he wrote on Twitter.

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More intriguingly, he followed up that tweet with another one that is merely three emojis - a purple and a blue circle and an hourglass - and the hashtag Trabzonspor. Therefore, it appears that this move is close to being finalised.

It brings to an end Pepe's five years at Arsenal and the Ivorian will unfortunately go down as one of the biggest transfer flops in Premier League history as the Gunners shelled out €80m on the former Lille man in 2019.