Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has hailed Nicolas Pepe a ‘great player’ and called for Arsenal to sign the forward ‘quickly’ following the side’s friendly victory over Angers.
Nothing could separate Arsenal and Angers in normal time after Reiss Nelson cancelled out Farid El Melali’s opener on Wednesday night, but the visitors held their nerve to come out on top in a penalty shootout at Stade Raymond-Kopa.
While Arsenal fans will no doubt be delighted to get back in to winning ways in pre-season after successive defeats to Real Madrid and Lyon, many were understandably distracted by the transfer saga involving Lille forward Pepe.
Arsenal are expected to unveil Pepe in the coming hours and it’s fair to say the impending move has been one of the worst kept secrets of the transfer window so far.
Supporters are beginning to get impatient for an official announcement and Aubameyang clearly felt their pain when he was asked about Pepe after Wednesday night’s win.
Asked about Pepe’s move to Arsenal, Aubameyang told beIN SPORTS: ‘When there are great players like that who are close to signing with a great club like Arsenal… it’s very pleasant to have a player like that.
‘I hope that he signs quickly and that it gets done.’
Aubameyang on Nicolas Pepe: “We are waiting.” pic.twitter.com/GCgeS5ohUc
— LTArsenal™ (@ltarsenal) July 31, 2019
Before Arsenal’s win over Angers, Lille president Gerard Lopez has confirmed Pepe’s €80million (£73m) move to the Emirates.
‘He is the one who made the decision, I think it should be [made official] in the next 24 hours,’ Lopez told French outlet RMC Sport.
‘It is €80m fixed. If we pushed this deal out a little bit longer, we could have had five or six offers of the same size.
‘Through discussions with Nico and his agents, the situation focused on the certain clubs that we wanted to focus on: the two projects that interested the player.’
Pepe will be the fourth player to join Arsenal this summer following the arrivals of Gabriel Martinelli, Dani Ceballos (loan from Real Madrid) and William Saliba.
Saliba, though, who completed a £27m move from Saint-Etienne, has been loaned back to Ligue 1 club for the 2019/20 campaign.
