Arsenal are flying high in the Premier League thanks to some good transfer business, but they are still recovering from old missteps in the market.
Mikel Arteta's side are packed full of astute signings, with fans still convinced Declan Rice was a bargain at £105million and the use of William Saliba was inspired. But their financial results from the 2022/23 season, which were made public on Monday, have revealed just how damaging bad deals can be, even years later.
Arsenal posted a loss of £52.1million for the year ending May 31, 2023, an increase from the £45.5m lost the previous year. That is despite their revenue rising by £95m to £467m and their wage bill of £234.7m remaining way below their Premier League rivals like Manchester City (£422.9m).
The decision to shell out £72m – a club-record figure at the time – on Nicolas Pepe in the summer of 2019, while Unai Emery was in charge, has haunted Arsenal over the years that followed. Pepe only contributed 27 goals and 21 assists in 112 games for the club and spent the 2022/23 season on loan with Nice before being offloaded to Trabzonspor for free in September 2023.
The move to Turkey came when Pepe still had a year left on the five-year deal he signed upon arrival in north London. Arsenal had to write it off to finally see the back of him, which cost them £18.1m in total, with their accounts putting it down as "impairment write-downs on certain player registrations".
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Pepe was signed after a prolific 2018/19 season saw him record 22 goals and 11 assists for Lille. While many fans blame former manager Emery for his struggles, he can't have been involved in the negotiations – and, in fact, later admitted he wanted to sign Wilfried Zaha from Crystal Palace instead.
Nicolas Pepe never came good at Arsenal (Arsenal FC via Getty Images)"Pepe is a good player but he needs time," he told the Daily Mail. "When I was there he didn't give me the performances. I was in favour of someone coming who knew the English league, more than anything so that he wouldn't need a period of adaptation. I had a meeting with Zaha, the Palace player. He was the player I wanted because I could see that he won so many games on his own.”
Pepe provided three goals and four assists in 16 games under Emery before he was sacked and it was Arsenal’s head of football Raul Sanllehi who rightfully shouldered much of the blame for the Ivory Coast international’s transfer fee. Sanllehi was let go in August 2020 and although the club painted it as a mutual decision, he was sacked by the hierarchy who were unhappy with his work.
Pepe’s £72m transfer fee and those paid for Bernd Leno and Lucas Torreira were believed to have been cited in his dismissal. So while Emery remains unpopular among Arsenal fans and compares unfavourably to Mikel Arteta, he cannot be blamed when it comes to Pepe.
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