Bought for a record amount, Nicolas Pépé never managed to recreate his form from Lille at Arsenal.
The player, now pushed to one side by Mikel Arteta at the Gunners, has been looking for an exit route this summer, but has yet to find it.
One of the more insistent clubs of late have been OGC Nice in France, who would give the Ivory Coast international a return to Ligue 1, where Pépé first made a name for himself.
The problem, however, has been reaching an agreement with Arsenal and the forward, which journalist Saber Desfarges explained on Twitter.
🔴⚫️ L’OGC Nice pousse pour s’attacher les services de Nicolas Pépé en prêt en provenance d’Arsenal.
L’obstacle pour l’heure dans les négos: le salaire du joueur. Arsenal, Nice et Nicolas Pépé doivent chacun trouver un terrain d’entente dans la répartition du salaire. pic.twitter.com/GWnLZrvThP
— Saber Desfarges (@SaberDesfa) August 22, 2022
He took to the social media platform to reveal that Nice are ‘pushing to acquire the services’ of the Emirates flop.
However, ‘the obstacle, for now, in the negotiations has been the player’s wages’, with Arsenal, Pépé and the Ligue 1 side ‘needing to each find common ground on how to spread the salary’.
That’s normally the case for any exit from the Premier League to a French side, and this one is no different.
It’ll now be down to the likes of Edu Gaspar and co. to see if something can be agreed.
