Quote Originally Posted by I am invisible View Post
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.
talking of Arteta, we have to factor in that his man-management is questionnable and at least part of Pepe's problem is the lack of a sustained run in the team in an established position, to allow him the ability to link up with players better.

ESR knew Saka already very well from the youth team plus has generally been around the club a long time and played with the senior team before in cups etc, so that's probably what's helped him in the transition