Arteta's €72 million headache: Pepe to be sent back to Arsenal

Nicolas Pepe made a total of 28 appearances this season with French side Nice, where he spent the year on loan. He put away eight goals in that time, which wouldn't be a terrible number on its own, but looking at other Arsenal signings on loan, he has fallen rather short. 

Folarin Balogun, playing at Reims this season, bagged 22 goals and two assists in just 11 more appearances, while defender Nuno Tavares helped keep Marseille in 3rd in Ligue 1, as well as putting six in the back of the net, which made him the club's second highest scorer.

Pepe seemed open to staying with Nice, saying in an interview with 'francebleu' earlier this season, "I'm very happy at Nice, there are still two important months for the club ... Despite the injury, I wanted to stay with the team and come to training, I've always done it like that. With the series we're doing, we want to finish well".

But it looks like Pepe will be returned to north London this summer, which creates a new set of problems for Mikel Arteta. He cost Arsenal a record £72 million when he joined in 2019, and has since struggled to live up to that number.

Despite Arteta's acknolwedgement that "Nico has tried to deal with that [the price tag] in the best possible way", and his praise for the striker's "phenomenal" attitude, the Gunners will definitely be looking to sell the Ivorian this summer to free up space on their wage bill, and raise money for their summer spending pot.

Pepe will be out of contract next summer, so Arsenal are running out of time to get some money back on their big spend. As of yet, there don't look to be any suitors for the winger.