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.
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.