The Nicolas Pepe saga could all be over by the end of the day, but given the way it’s gone there’s always a chance things could change completely.
For months it’s felt like Lille and a whole group of agents with various different levels of attachment to the player have been pushing stories to the French media.
Some of the claims, like Pepe truly wanting a move to his home-town-club PSG, have been believable, although they had little impact. Others, like Inter Milan offering €90m and Arsenal €80m have seemed farcical, given the budgets at the clubs.
However, the Gunners have this summer decided to look at their limited budget a different way and rather than count the whole transfer fee they’re only counting what goes out this summer.
Therefore, with Lille being accommodating over a structured deal, they’re closing in on a €80m signing.
Tuesday’s edition of L’Equipe reports Pepe will ‘go this afternoon to London’ to complete his transfer to London, barring any last minute dramatics.
Pepe will need to go through his medical, and whilst L’Equipe say that last night ‘a few financial details remained to be settled’, they don’t present that as a problem.
