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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Simon Collings

Nicolas Pepe: Arsenal hopeful over offloading £72m flop to Turkey in late summer transfer

Arsenal are hoping that they can broker a deal for Nicolas Pepe to leave the club before next week’s summer transfer deadline in Turkey.

The Ivorian winger has entered the final year of his current contract at the Emirates Stadium and is not part of manager Mikel Arteta’s first-team plans for the future.

The Gunners have been looking for a new club for Pepe throughout the summer and Turkey is now his most viable next destination after the transfer window shut across many European countries last week.

Besiktas and Trabzonspor have both been credited with an interest in the player, who spent last season on loan at French club Nice. The Turkish window does not shut until September 15.

Exit looming: Arsenal are still hopeful of offloading Nicolas Pepe to a club in Turkey (Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Pepe joined Arsenal in the summer of 2019 from Lille for a then club-record fee of £72million, but he has failed to deliver.

The 28-year-old is currently without a squad number after Leandro Trossard took the No19 shirt when he joined from Brighton in January.

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