Arsenal are set to break their transfer record to sign Lille winger Nicolas Pepe, the Ligue 1 side's president has confirmed that the deal is about to go through. The fee is around 73 million pounds, according to the French club's president, but Arsenal head coach Unai Emery has revealed that the deal is not yet closed. Nicolas Pepe had an impressive tally for Lille last season, providing 22 goals and 11 assists to help his club finish second in Ligue 1 behind giants Paris Saint-Germain.
PSG, Liverpool, Inter, Bayern Munich and Manchester United were all linked with the Ivory Coast international this summer, while Serie A side Napoli also confirmed that the 24-year-old winger was a target for them. "I think it should be done in the next 24 hours," Lille president Gerard Lopez said on Wednesday. "It is 80 million euros fixed, plus some other details. In talking with Nico and his agents, things focused on the certain clubs that we wanted to focus on, the two projects that interested the player."
Nicolas Pepe will become the fourth signing of the summer for Arsenal after teenage forward Gabriel Martinelli arrived from Ituano, defender William Saliba joined from St Etienne and Real Madrid midfielder Dani Ceballos joined on loan. However, 18-year-old defender Saliba returned on loan to Saint Etienne for the 2019-20 season. Arsenal boss Unai Emery said that the club are looking to add one more player to the squad before the transfer window closes: "We are speaking about a lot of players, we want to select on players who can really help us, give us big performances and improve our squad. Our target is to sign another player if he can really, really improve us. Our target is continuing to sign another player if we can." The Gunners have been trying to sign Celtic full-back Kieran Tierney, but so far their offers have been rejected by the Scottish club.
Arsenal finished fifth in the Premier League last season and now they are 11/10 at William Hill to grab a top-four place next season.
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