How to solve the Nicolas Pepe Problem?

[Gooner23]

Having a #10 alongside him to play off, as well as a Lacazette who doesn’t have to drop so deep all the time to link play, will both be a big help to Pepe, as will having players like Gabriel and Partey in the side, who like to hit early, diagonal balls to the right wing. I can see us getting more out of him with all of those guys in the side.

Ultimately though, his extreme one-footedness makes his intentions way too predictable for this level, and he’s yet another player who needs too many other players around him to fill in his blanks before he’s useful. I’m not even sure that I buy that he’s that useful on counter attacks? We’ve pretty much done nothing but sit deep and try to counter for the last year and he hasn’t exactly set the world alight? And now teams have sussed out that tactic he seems to have disappeared altogether.

He's just so slow and predictable in everything he does. You look at the left footed Saka in the same areas and everything happens twice as quick, with more variety.

[Mac76]

He's just so slow and predictable in everything he does. You look at the left footed Saka in the same areas and everything happens twice as quick, with more variety.

in other words we were sold a pup by a corrupt agent and Raul - i'm willing to bet the club had enough on Raul to actually get him convicted of fraud and/or corruption but to avoid all the negative publicity they simply got rid of him

[I am invisible]

He's just so slow and predictable in everything he does. You look at the left footed Saka in the same areas and everything happens twice as quick, with more variety.

Yeah, Saka's much more adaptable to different situations and game plans, and he doesn't need 2 or 3 specific players to be present before he contributes.

I still think Pepe could be a weapon in the right circumstances - at the very least he's a wildcard that we can chuck on if nothing else is working - but ultimately I don't see him starting ahead of Saka, Martinelli or Auba in those wide areas, so that makes him another 100k+/wk bench-warner.

[I am invisible]

in other words we were sold a pup by a corrupt agent and Raul - i'm willing to bet the club had enough on Raul to actually get him convicted of fraud and/or corruption but to avoid all the negative publicity they simply got rid of him

[selassie]

Yeah, Saka's much more adaptable to different situations and game plans, and he doesn't need 2 or 3 specific players to be present before he contributes.

I still think Pepe could be a weapon in the right circumstances - at the very least he's a wildcard that we can chuck on if nothing else is working - but ultimately I don't see him starting ahead of Saka, Martinelli or Auba in those wide areas, so that makes him another 100k+/wk bench-warner.

Yep, totally agree.

[WGC Goon]

We should sell him on next summer while he's still in his prime and we can still cash in on him. Nothing against the player but he's had enough time to settle in and show us what he can do, which so far has been sporadic to say the least.

[Bumble]

Yeah, Saka's much more adaptable to different situations and game plans, and he doesn't need 2 or 3 specific players to be present before he contributes.

I still think Pepe could be a weapon in the right circumstances - at the very least he's a wildcard that we can chuck on if nothing else is working - but ultimately I don't see him starting ahead of Saka, Martinelli or Auba in those wide areas, so that makes him another 100k+/wk bench-warner.

the only thing is that we complain lack of depth then also complain about 100k bench warmer. if we want proper depth in squad its going to cost particularly as all the kids are 1st choice already. difficult situation and should we care about the cost that much.

[I am invisible]

the only thing is that we complain lack of depth then also complain about 100k bench warmer. if we want proper depth in squad its going to cost particularly as all the kids are 1st choice already. difficult situation and should we care about the cost that much.

Yeah, I get what you’re saying, and if he was actually providing quality depth then this would be a different conversation. But he isn’t, and the situation looks pretty straightforward to me.

I started writing a response last night, outlining all of our financial woes and why we should care - the lack of CL football, the lack of crowds, the owners buying up our stadium debt, the mass redundancies, the fact that we had to ask the players to take a pay cut, the fact that we’ve had to apply for a £140m bridging loan to see us through to May, the current squad trimming, etc - but having slept on it I actually think all of that is irrelevant. If we want to be a top club again then we need to have the highest standards and that means regular audits on the squad, regardless of our financial health - anyone who isn’t delivering value should be moved on and replaced.

I appreciate that form and circumstance play a big role here, and that players need to be assessed over a reasonable period of time (half way through their current contract might be a good time to review), but by the summer Pepe will have been here 2 years - if he isn’t showing that he’s a CL quality player by then (which is what you expect for those wages) then I think we need to cut our losses and reinvest whatever we can salvage.

[IBK]

Yeah, I get what you’re saying, and if he was actually providing quality depth then this would be a different conversation. But he isn’t, and the situation looks pretty straightforward to me.

I started writing a response last night, outlining all of our financial woes and why we should care - the lack of CL football, the lack of crowds, the owners buying up our stadium debt, the mass redundancies, the fact that we had to ask the players to take a pay cut, the fact that we’ve had to apply for a £140m bridging loan to see us through to May, the current squad trimming, etc - but having slept on it I actually think all of that is irrelevant. If we want to be a top club again then we need to have the highest standards and that means regular audits on the squad, regardless of our financial health - anyone who isn’t delivering value should be moved on and replaced.

I appreciate that form and circumstance play a big role here, and that players need to be assessed over a reasonable period of time (half way through their current contract might be a good time to review), but by the summer Pepe will have been here 2 years - if he isn’t showing that he’s a CL quality player by then (which is what you expect for those wages) then I think we need to cut our losses and reinvest whatever we can salvage.

Good points. But on the other hand I suppose we need to look at on costs. Pepe costs £100K per week - making him our 10th highest wage earner, but the 7 next highest earners are all within 20/25K of him. We overpaid for Pepe transfer wise, undoubtedly, and there is a good argument that he is not a good fit for our system, but which of the players we have would we like to see play instead of Pepe on the RW. Definitely not Willian. I would like to see AMN tried there more regularly, but after that?

We can no longer look at the player's transfer fee. This is water under the bridge and not really relevant going forwards.

Would the money we are likely to get for Pepe in the current market, plus 100K wages buy a better player? Perhaps - but unlikely that this would get a ready made player in his prime who would not be first choice.

I still think that Pepe could make the breakthrough, given that following a period where we have not played with the fluency and imagination that would suit Pepe's game, we are starting to become less rigid and predictable. I would like to see Pepe used more for the rest of the season before writing him off - and lets face it it is only playing time that will potentially preserve some of his re-sale value if we do decide to sell.

[I am invisible]

Good points. But on the other hand I suppose we need to look at on costs. Pepe costs £100K per week - making him our 10th highest wage earner, but the 7 next highest earners are all within 20/25K of him. We overpaid for Pepe transfer wise, undoubtedly, and there is a good argument that he is not a good fit for our system, but which of the players we have would we like to see play instead of Pepe on the RW. Definitely not Willian. I would like to see AMN tried there more regularly, but after that?

We can no longer look at the player's transfer fee. This is water under the bridge and not really relevant going forwards.

Would the money we are likely to get for Pepe in the current market, plus 100K wages buy a better player? Perhaps - but unlikely that this would get a ready made player in his prime who would not be first choice.

I still think that Pepe could make the breakthrough, given that following a period where we have not played with the fluency and imagination that would suit Pepe's game, we are starting to become less rigid and predictable. I would like to see Pepe used more for the rest of the season before writing him off - and lets face it it is only playing time that will potentially preserve some of his re-sale value if we do decide to sell.

Oh I'm in total agreement about the fee. That money's gone. We're not getting it back. Forget it and move on. This is now purely about whether we're getting value for the ongoing £100k/wk wages.

Honestly, I don't know whether we could get better than Pepe for the same money... but I certainly think we could get someone of a similar standard for considerably less. Maybe it wouldn't amount to a huge saving if we were just talking about Pepe, but it starts to add up when you go through the squad and apply the same rule to everyone who's not delivering. This is where the club need to start getting ruthless with their self-imposed 'final 2 years' rule (which is usually about the mid point in a players contract, so a good time for a review): if a player is hitting their KPIs, extend their contract; if they won't sign the extension, move them on and reinvest; if they're not hitting their KPIs, move them on and reinvest.

Fwiw, I also think Pepe could still make the breakthrough - I'm just not sure we can afford to wait much longer for it to happen? Maybe if we had a few less other problems to deal with we could see where it goes, but atm I don't think Arteta has the time for quite this many project-players. Summer would be my cut-off point - if he hasn't clicked by then I'd put him back on the market. 2 years is long enough to wait for a senior player to settle in and find themselves.