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Neymar had a rather bizarre role to play in Nicolas Pepe’s transfer to Arsenal

By Praneet Shetty

PARIS, FRANCE - NOVEMBER 2: Neymar Jr of PSG, Nicolas Pepe of Lille during the french Ligue 1 match between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Lille OSC (LOSC) at Parc des Princes stadium on November 2, 2018 in Paris, France. (Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)
PARIS, FRANCE - NOVEMBER 2: Neymar Jr of PSG, Nicolas Pepe of Lille during the french Ligue 1 match between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Lille OSC (LOSC) at Parc des Princes stadium on November 2, 2018 in Paris, France. (Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images) /
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Paris Saint-Germain superstar Neymar played a rather bizarre role in Nicolas Pepe deciding to join Unai Emery’s Arsenal side…

Arsenal seem to have agreed a deal worth £72 million with Ligue 1 side Lille, for Nicolas Pepe. As reported by BBC sport, the North London Club will pay the £72 million to Lille in installments. Lille president Gerard Lopez had revealed that Les Dogues had accepted bids from several clubs and it seems that the Gunners seem to be the most likely team to land Pepe as the player’s agent is supposedly pushing for a move to the English side.

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However, there is a back story to this move that only a few would’ve thought of. Mirror reports that Paris Saint-Germain’s star forward Neymar had an unlikely role to play in Nicolas Pepe making the decision of joining Arsenal. Neymar has been linked with a return to FC Barcelona and is trying to push for an exit from PSG. But Les Parisians are asking for the full €222 million that they had paid for the Brazilian and would not be willing to engage in any kind of player plus cash deal for the Brazilian. This has put off FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, who were willing to offer one or more players plus cash for Neymar. FC Barcelona’s financial woes add to their inability to re-sign Neymar and it seems more and more likely that the Brazilian forward will remain at PSG for another year at least.

However, with no progress on Neymar’s potential exit from PSG, Mirror states that Nicolas Pepe reportedly grew tired of waiting and opted to move to move elsewhere as apparently, the Ivorian was inclined towards eventually replacing Neymar at PSG. Pepe wanted to move to the Ligue 1 champions but it all depended on Neymar’s exit from the club and allegedly got weary of waiting for anything to happen and decided that a move to Arsenal will be the next best thing for him.

Nicolas Pepe was the second best scorer in Ligue 1 last season just behind PSG’s Kylian Mbappe, scoring 22 goals and assisting 11 in the league for Lille. With a deal to yet be officially announced, Nicolas Pepe will be Arsenals third signing of the summer following Wiliiam Saliba and Dani Ceballos (on loan from Real Madrid) and the thought of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette and Nicolas Pepe forming Arsenal’s front three seems like an amazing prospect to the Gunners fans. Arsenal, who were struggling to sign any player throughout the majority of the transfer window, owing to their extremely low transfer budget, have had an amazing week where two players already joined the squad with ta potential third on his way.

Next. Arsenal agree deal to sign Ligue 1 superstar. dark

Will Nicolas Pepe prove to be a worthy signing for Arsenal ?

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