Nicolas Pepe has opened up on the ‘trauma’ he suffered during his spell as an Arsenal player.
The Ivory Coast winger became Arsenal’s record signing when he arrived from Lille for a £72m fee (per Sky Sports) in the summer of 2019.
However, Pepe never found his feet at the Emirates, notching just 27 goals and 21 assists in 112 appearances across all competitions for the Gunners, though he did register a goal and two assists in the club’s run to the FA Cup title in 2020.
Nevertheless, Pepe was loaned out to Nice for the 2022/23 campaign before joining Turkish side Trabzonspor on a free transfer last summer despite having one year remaining on his Arsenal contract.
Now a free agent after being released by Trabzonspor, Pepe has opened up about his harrowing experience at Arsenal, where he was often lambasted for his performances — to the point where he fell out of love with football altogether.
“At Arsenal, I suffered a kind of trauma, as if my passion had been ripped away from me,” Pepe told French news outlet L’Equipe.
“I felt disgust for the game. I was no longer playing, and I asked myself why I was doing this job.
“I doubted myself to the point that I thought about giving it all up. I wondered how people could be so harsh on me. They even called me the biggest flop in the history of the Premier League.”
Pepe admitted that his £72m fee contributed heavily to his struggles at the Emirates, raising expectations around his performances to unreasonable levels for a player requiring an adjustment period to English football.
“I hadn’t asked Arsenal to pay £72m for me,” Pepe added.
“With a fee that high people don’t care what level you come from – they just want you to perform straight away.
“Sadly the reality is that it’s statistics above all. Some players score 25 goals a season, but there aren’t many of them and I’m not even a number nine.
“I wasn’t going to roll over the Premier League like that. But that’s what brought me this wave of criticism.”
Pepe revealed that even members of Arsenal’s staff contributed to his struggles in England, although the 29-year-old winger did credit the club’s supporters, who he says ‘always supported him’.
“It was almost harassment,” he said. “I don’t look at social media much, but if my brother told me, ‘This is what they said about you,’ it would affect me unconsciously.
“It also came from the media or from certain members of the club. They don’t realise that it can affect the mental state, the family and it affects performance.
“The only people who always supported me were the Arsenal fans.”
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