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Arsenal have launched into an internal investigation into the signing of Nicolas Pépé from Lille last summer.
The news comes following the announcement the club’s head of football Raul Sanllehi has left the club, although it is not clear if the two events are connected.
There is no suggestion that Pépé has done anything wrong, or that the club regret signing the Ivorian, who scored eight goals and provided ten assists in his first season at the Emirates.
The club’s owners want to understand how they came to pay a record fee for the striker, and who was involved in the deal that saw them pay £20 million upfront, with a further £52 million paid in instalments.
Among the questions they want answered are:
- Who was involved in structuring the deal in such a way?
- Did all the money go to where it was intended?
- Why did super-agent Jorge Mendes become involved in the transaction?
- And was he paid for his services?
Vinay Venkateshan now has sole day-to-day responsibility for running the club.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.