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Arsenal are ready to terminate the contract of record signing Nicolas Pépé this summer.
The North London club paid £72 million to sign him from French club Lille in 2019, but he has struggled for consistency since then, and the emergence of Bukayo Saka pushed him down the pecking order at the Emirates.
He has spent the current season on loan back in France with Nice, and, although they would be interested in signing him permanently, they do not want to pay a transfer fee to do so.
There is no obvious place back for him at the Emirates, and now, rather than continue to pay him just to sit on the bench at best, the Gunners are prepared to rip up his contract, even though there is a financial cost involved in that.
Pépé is reported to earn £140,000 a week currently, and has one year left on his current deal with the Premier League leaders.
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.