UNAI EMERY is convinced that Nicolas Pepe can be an Arsenal sensation after confirming that the club are in talks with Lille over a £72milion deal.
The 24-year-old Ivorian international is keen to move to England and is negotiating personal terms understood to be around £140,000-a-week.
Arsenal insist the deal is still a long way from completion and are wary of a late move from Manchester United or Liverpool to hijack his signing.
But Emery is clearly excited by the prospect of signing Pepe and is hopeful of concluding a repayment plan within the next few days.
He said: “Nicolas Pepe is a very good player and we are thinking only about signing players who will really, really improve this squad and also give us different conditions.
“We have been working for the last few weeks to get the best team with the best players in our squad before our first game against Newcastle.
“There are different players players on the table with the possibility we can achieve their signature.
“At the beginning of the market we were thinking to do one centre-back, one full-back and one winger. We are still thinking the same way.
“Really I want a better team than last season with only new players who can improve the squad and help us to achieve our ambitions.”
The Pepe will deal will smash the £60million club record which Arsenal paid Borussia Dortmund for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang last year.
But they are still relying on plenty of hard bargaining and creative accountancy from head of football Raul Sanllehi, managing director Vinai Venkatesham and chief negotiator Huss Fahmy.
Remarkable as it might seem, Lille appear happy to settle for a £20million down payment and then have the remaining £52million paid out over the course of the next four years.
Arsenal have reached a similar agreement with St.Etienne for teenage centre-half William Saliba, who will eventually cost them £27million but only around £6million this year.
That means that the club are still working within their £50million summer budget, which has been slightly boosted by the sales of David Ospina and Xavier Amaechi.
They have also paid £6million for Brazilian teenager Gabriel Martinelli and a £3million loan fee for Real Madrid midfielder Dani Ceballos.
Now Emery hopes to get a further cash injection from the club’s new £50million kit deal with adidas to help him complete a £25million deal for Celtic left-back Kieran Tierney.
But he ruled out a move for Juventus’ former German international Sami Khedira, who was spotted at the Emirates yesterday sparking rumours that he could be signing as a free agent.
“Khedira is a very good player but this is the first time I have heard his name mentioned,” Emery said.
Speaking after yesterday’s 2-1 defeat by Lyon in the Emirates Cup, Emery admitted that he still has defensive issues after former Fulham and Celtic striker Moussa Dembele scored twice.
He said: “We defended very well in the first-half, our positioning was very good and the team generally played the way we wanted to.
“But in the second-half maybe we became a little too comfortable and thought we were going to win because we were creating so many chances.
“It was a real surprise when they scored and if I am worried about one thing today it’s maybe because we decided that we could win at half-time and we didn’t have the consistency to focus 100 percent to win the game.”
