£72million star reveals people at Arsenal made him want to quit during struggles

Former Arsenal forward Nicolas Pepe has admitted he contemplated quitting football when he was subjected to abuse at the Premier League club.

Ranked among the best in his position, Pepe had just enjoyed a stellar season at Lille and Arsenal made the Ivorian their record signing when they bought him in back in the summer of 2019. The north Londoners paid £72million to sign the Ivorian winger.

However, Pepe failed to deliver as he went on to spend just three years at the club. He scored 27 times and was judged harshly.

Eventually the Gunners opted to terminate his deal in order to get his hefty wages off their books. Recalling what happened during his time at Arsenal, Pepe hit back at the club and claimed he “didn’t ask for the £72m fee to be put on him”.

According to him, the price tag led to an increase in criticism which saw him consider his future in the sport.

He told French outlet L’Equipe: “It was almost harassment. I don’t look at social media much, but if my brother told me ‘this is what they said about you’, it would affect me unconsciously. It also came from the media or from certain members of the club. They don’t realise that it can affect the mental state, the family and it affects performance.

“The only people who have always supported me are the Arsenal fans. At Arsenal, I suffered a kind of trauma, as if my passion had been ripped away from me, I had a disgust for football. I doubted myself to the point that I thought about quitting everything.

“I wondered how they could have been so relentless in their attacks on me. They even called me the biggest flop in the history of the Premier League. But I refused to mope.”

Pepe had been plying his trade in Turkey with Trabzonspor, where scored six times last term before his one-year deal expired. The Ivorian has now been linked with a summer move to Saudi Arabia.