The Saudi Arabian push into the sport of football has taken a huge leap in the past year. Their famous win over Argentina in the World Cup group stages in Qatar followed by the acquisition of Cristiano Ronaldo by Al Nassr helped kick-off a trend that is going nowhere and perhaps Arsenal can benefit.
Saudi Arabia has huge funds which is now impacting both football and golf on global scales. After just one full season of owning Newcastle United, the Saudi-backed consortium that bought the club from Mike Ashley has the team back in the Champions League.
From an Arsenal perspective, there is perhaps some hope that the club can benefit from potential sales to the region. Nicolas Pepe is amongst a number of players that the Gunners are looking to offload in the summer.
The Ivorian is amongst as many as fifteen players who could yet leave the squad during the window. However after spending the majority of the second half of the season on the injury table, playing just three Ligue 1 games for Nice since January, there’s an unsurprising lack of links or avenues away from north London.
Arsenal have renewed Bukayo Saka’s contract and football.london understands an agreement with Reiss Nelson is progressing well too. Therefore there is not a place in the squad and football.london expects the club to try and find a way to sell Pepe.
Saudi Arabia could be a destination which suits all parties. According to the 3AddedMinutes, Pepe could indeed be open to a move to the country.
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However, the chances of the Gunners making back much of their record investment of £72million is very slim. Whilst he scored eight goals for Nice on loan last season, the injuries and lack of interest at present will work against the club.
There have been predictions that Pepe could be one of the final ‘investments’ as sporting director Edu likes to describe them. The club instead could come to an agreement over the termination of his contract.
His high wages make him even less desirable but perhaps again this is where the Saudi league can come to Arsenal’s rescue. It will be interesting to see if the Gunners can use the rise of the league and presence in the sport to their advantage.
Chelsea certainly did with the sale of Oscar for £60million to Shanghai SIPG in 2017. China looked to be the next force in the sport but has since fizzed out somewhat although projections are Saudi Arabia will not be a similar false dawn and instead quite the opposite.
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