Last weekend, a report in L’Equipe suggested that Lille were closing in on Newcastle target Nicolas Pepe, with ‘accelerated talks’ taking place around that time.
The Geordies were said to still have the financial advantage in the deal, with Angers asking for €10m + a handful of small bonuses, but moves needed to be made if Rafa Benitez didn’t want to let the Ivory Coast forward slip through his fingers.
We have a small update on Thursday evening from regional journalist David Thomas, who covers Rennes for Le Télégramme, correctly predicting the Abdoulaye Doucouré transfer to Watford a year or so ago.
Putting out a tweet, the journalist claimed that Rennes were now interested in Pepe, which make sense if they are losing Aldo Kalulu when his loan from Lyon comes to an end in a couple of weeks.
#MercatoSRFC #Rennes est, de nouveau, entré dans la danse pour #Pépé (@AngersSCO), mais les clubs anglais ont de l’avance, surtout Newcastle
— David Thomas (@davidthomas35) June 8, 2017
In the same tweet, Thomas revealed that clubs from England, ‘especially Newcastle’, had a head start on the Ligue 1 side to secure the 22-year-old’s services.
This would suggest that Rafa Benitez is still interested in the Ivory Coast forward, and if they are the favourites, things could move relatively quickly if more and more clubs start snooping around.
We haven’t heard the last of this one, that’s for sure.
