Arsenal: Kulusevski & Nicolas Pepe swap proposal rejected

Every now and then a transfer rumour, or a development to one, will come up where instead of taking us back it makes us raise a few eyebrows. This fresh Arsenal doozy does just that.

By now it’s been impossible to ignore the Dejan Kulusevski talk, all of which centred on a report by Gianluca Di Marzio and has since been picked up across Italy from a variety of sources.

The initial claims from the Sky Italia journalist were that Arsenal had made an inquiry over the Swede’s availability having fallen out of favour at Juventus and since publicly stating an interest in playing regularly elsewhere.

As is so often the case in such instances, this then begins spiraling out of control with lesser known outlets adding their tidbits of information, usually conjured up out of thin air.

Juventus rejected Dejan Kulusevski swap deal with Arsenal for Nicolas Pepe and instead want permanent £30m transfer

Since the it’s been stated that Kulusevski is ‘destined’ for a move to north London, and separately that Mikel Arteta has given his go-ahead to the deal – one that has been said to cost anywhere between €30m-€40m.

The forward is certainly an exciting prospect. The lack of starts in Turin have slowed his progression down with his numbers from previous years more impressive, yet there is clearly still talent there.

Were such ability to grace the Emirates turf then it would surely spell the end of Nicolas Pepe’s time at the club, if his time isn’t already nearing an end as he struggles to break into the team under Arteta and enters that two-year contract situation that generally boils down to re-sign or sell.

As per a very brief report from Tutto Juve (indeed..) Arsenal have made a proposal to Juventus that would see Pepe swapped for his younger counterpart as they aim to replicate ‘Ljunberg’s glories’.

Yes, they spelt his name wrong.

I Bianconeri have given a flat no to that proposal, however, and are only interested in cash, which is listed as ‘at least €35m’.

What if Juventus said yes? Would Pepe and Kulusevski just go about their business for the next month and a half waiting to swap places? The claim has a rather unavoidable smell. It’s a smell that Will Smith is allergic to in I, Robot (you can look that one up).

While swapping Pepe would come across as a PR disaster, so too would spending £72m on him. However this ends up transpiring won’t look good, but it also won’t be in a swap deal for Kulusevski.

A class case of a rumour growing legs and running blindly into a wall.