Arsenal: Nicolas Pepe another test of Unai Emery’s regime

Arsenal are strongly linked to Lille winger Nicolas Pepe, but we’ve been here before, albeit without Unai Emery. So can he be the difference maker?

With the January transfer window right around the corner, it’s only natural that every player that has been linked with Arsenal over the past year or so comes back into the spectrum. And thus do we find ourselves face to face with Nicolas Pepe yet again.

This time, the reports in France indicate that the Gunners are in “pole position” to land the 23-year-old Ivorian winger for a fee of around £45m, or, in more modern terms, half a Dembele.

I, and most fans out there, are always a bit reluctant to put too much credence in the word of tabloid rumors, but Pepe’s link has been around for awhile, and the fit couldn’t be more perfect. He is exactly what the Gunners need, he is on the rise, and he would fit right into an attack that is currently laden with questionable presences.

Most of the hesitancy from these transfer rumors comes from years of being fooled into thinking that Arsene Wenger and the club were actually going to spend money. Usually, it didn’t happen, not until right up at the end of the run.

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But it’s important to remember that this is a new era. Emery might well have spoken out against the possibilities of a January move, but he did say they would be looking. And if the report is to be believed, that Lille have changed their policy and are open to selling Pepe in the winter, than this could be another great opportunity for Unai Emery to show that things are different.

He may not be directly in charge of transfers, but he is still the face of this new era, he is the symbol of then changes and whether it’s fair or not he will get a majority of the credit or the blame, depending on how things go in the transfer markets.

If Emery comes in, downplays the January transfer window, and comes out of it with dead weight cut and a shiny new winger in Nicolas Pepe, who is ready to take the world by storm, then even more lingering hesitations can melt away.

With Reiss Nelson coming back in the summer and Bukayo Saka rising in the ranks, adding someone like Nicolas Pepe would give the club a trio of truly exciting wingers. Something we haven’t had in ages.