Matthew Gregory and Jason Jones are back to chat about Nicolas Pépé's time Arsenal, as well as previewing this weekend's clash with Everton.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 doesn't look great on the balance sheet when you spend a record transfer, you know, buying
00:04 in a player, and you end up, you know, terminating his contract and letting him leave for free.
00:08 It's not a good look. It's obviously not great on the for the bank, you know, for the bank
00:11 balance either. But ultimately, it's just one of those things you've got to learn from
00:15 it was a mistake is going to be very disappointing. I think you have to learn some lessons about
00:19 recruitment and scouting and how you sort of got the process so wrong.
00:26 Hello, welcome to another episode of the Chris Wheatley show national world's one stop shop
00:32 to keep you in the know on all things Arsenal. I'm your host Jason Jones. No Chris again
00:36 this week. So I'm joined by three added minutes is Matt Gregory. This week we'll be discussing
00:40 Nicola Pepe's exit as well as looking ahead to the weekend's Premier League action with
00:44 Arsenal coming up against Everton on Sunday. As always, Matt, absolute pleasure to see
00:49 you, mate. Yeah, let's get started. I suppose we'll start with that late piece of transfer
00:55 news Nicola Pepe, obviously at one point, Arsenal's record signing and 72 million pound
01:00 acquisition he was at the time he's left the club. He's gone to Turkey, which kind of feels
01:05 like sort of written in the stars to a certain extent. But I'm just sort of interested to
01:10 get your opinion on this one. And whether you you know, it felt as if it was it was
01:14 inevitable at a certain point in it. Yeah, I think the Pepe project was something that
01:20 Arsenal gave up on a couple of years ago. And he did he went out on loan to Nice in
01:26 France last year, I think he did okay. But I don't think there was really a point at
01:31 which they considered to the bringing him back into the squad. I don't think this was
01:33 ever one they were interested in trying to find a way to reintegrate him. I think they
01:39 made their judgment on him. It's obviously it doesn't look great on the balance sheet
01:44 when you spend a record transfer, you know, buying in a player, and you end up, you know,
01:49 terminating his contract and letting him leave for free. It's not a good look. It's
01:52 obviously not great on the for the bank, for the bank balance either. But ultimately, it's
01:57 just one of those things you've got to learn from it was a mistake is going to be very
02:00 disappointing. I think you have to learn some lessons about recruitment and scouting and
02:04 how you sort of got the process so wrong. I think there was an extent to which year
02:08 when he was at Lille in League One, he did score a lot of goals, but it was very inflated
02:13 by the fact that he was taking a ton of penalties in one season, which really pushed up his
02:16 confidence. I wonder if they really sort of dug down into why he was scoring so many goals
02:20 and how he was scoring so many goals. He doesn't really feel like he ever. He never really
02:25 seemed to fit the tactics of Arsenal when he from the moment he first arrived. He didn't
02:28 look like he was sort of part of a puzzle. He looks like they seen a shiny object to
02:32 go on form and scoring some goals in France, and just thought, you know, he'll work. He
02:37 just didn't he didn't really fit in. He's a lost form and confidence very quickly. But
02:41 I think it was just one of those when it was a bad move for play and a bad move for the
02:45 team. I don't think sort of anyone comes out of this one. Well, you've just got to sort
02:49 of make sure that the next time you're looking at another player for a similar kind of position,
02:53 similar kind of fee, they're doing the due diligence better than learning the lessons
02:56 from this one. And, you know, you've got to hope from Pepe's point of view that his time
03:00 in Drabzinspor works out a lot better than his time in Arsenal. You know, it hasn't gone
03:05 well for him at the Emirates. There's no reason to wish him anything other than the best in
03:09 Turkey. It's just a shame sometimes moves don't work out. But yeah, it'll go down as
03:14 a big mistake. But it's in the past now. It's a historical record. It's just it's not something
03:21 we have to worry about now. He's gone for us. They just have to move on and put Pepe
03:25 in the past. Unfortunately, I think, you know, you're on about moving on that. I think to
03:29 a certain extent, it feels as if Arsenal have already learned some lessons. You know, the
03:34 recent recruitment that we've seen from them, you know, in the sort of season since the
03:37 Pepe transfer, it's felt generally and obviously there are missteps. There are going to be
03:43 missteps at any club, but it has felt as if the sort of general trajectory is being a
03:47 more positive one. Obviously, there's still at times paying out immense sums of money
03:52 for players and the jury's out on the likes of Kai Havertz, for instance, this summer.
03:56 But for the most part, I think it's fair to say that, you know, as Mikkel Arteta has grown
04:02 into the role, the recruitment has sort of grown alongside him. And, you know, it's interesting
04:08 that you talk about this idea of, you know, maybe Pepe not really being brought in with
04:12 a sort of tactical blueprint in mind, but rather just being brought in as this new shiny
04:17 thing, you know, this record capture. It certainly feels to me at least that, you know, we're
04:22 increasingly seeing with Arsenal that they are bringing in players who fit a system,
04:26 you know, and again, come back to Havertz, you know, he's a player who I think a lot
04:30 of Arsenal fans were sort of caught slightly off guard by when it became apparent that
04:35 they were interested and then that they were actually going to go and sign him this summer.
04:38 But it certainly feels as if in his case, you know, he's a player who Arteta has identified
04:42 because he believes that he's capable of playing, you know, not just in one position, but one
04:47 thing that we know about Mikkel Arteta is that he appreciates that sort of tactical
04:51 fluidity, a player who can come in and sort of, you know, work in that way that he likes
04:56 to. And it certainly feels as if, you know, Havertz is one example of that, but increasingly
05:01 we're seeing players come through the door at Arsenal who are well thought out signings.
05:06 And, you know, like you say, it's a shame that it didn't work out with Pepe. But, you
05:11 know, if we sort of look back on it with a little bit of hindsight, I don't think it's
05:15 particularly that much of a shock that it didn't work out with Pepe.
05:19 Yeah, I think, you know, so Pepe was signed, he was basically signed and put into the squad
05:25 to play as if he was like an inside forward supporting the main striker, cutting inside.
05:30 And that was never his natural game. He was much more someone who should be breaking the
05:33 line in the last man sort of, you know, getting into positions down the channels and sort
05:37 of using his pace to get through the back line and set up chances and score goals. And
05:41 he was just never used like that. And it was a case, I think, of, you know, buying a square
05:45 peg for a round hop. And I think when you look at someone like, say, Kai Havertz, it
05:49 may or may not work out. We don't know yet. But with our test of signing, with Edu as
05:54 the sporting director, you get the impression that the signings are being made to a genuine
05:58 plan. There's a thought behind this is the role we want Havertz to play. This is the
06:01 role we want Declan Rice to play. This is how they'll fit into the team. They're not
06:06 being bought arbitrarily. And it's not a case of sort of just buying shiny objects and sort
06:11 of hoping that you can work out how to incorporate them. It's buying pieces to the puzzle that
06:16 already exists. So in that regard, it looks to me like Arsenal are buying sort of more
06:20 smartly. As you say, you know, there's a lot of question marks over Havertz in particular.
06:24 That's another big money signing that has got potential to go wrong. Given his recent
06:28 form with Chelsea, he's not had an amazing start to his career in an Arsenal shirt, but
06:33 there's a lot of ways you could go right to and you can see the plan. And as long as you're
06:36 doing that, you're going to have a lot more hits with your transfers than you do misses,
06:40 I think.
06:41 I'm looking ahead to the weekend's Premier League action. Arsenal will travel to Goodison
06:47 Park to play Everton on Sunday afternoon. I mean, this is a fixture that should be relatively
06:52 straightforward for the Gunners, shouldn't it, Matt?
06:54 Yeah, on paper, you would have thought this won't be the toughest game for Arsenal. Everton
06:59 haven't had a great start to the season, only one point from the first four games. They
07:04 haven't looked particularly impressive, particularly in front of goal. But we will, I think, have
07:08 some memories of, I think it was Sean Dye's first game in charge of Everton last year
07:12 when they beat Arsenal, played really well and put up an upset. And I did a bit of a
07:18 statistical deep dive for a separate article recently on Everton, and I was slightly surprised
07:22 to find out that when you look at the numbers, you know, chances created, the way the numbers
07:27 they're putting up with possession, expected goals, they actually seem to be playing quite
07:31 well. They're just, it's a bit of a combination of dodgy finishing, which may or may not be
07:36 fixed by Beto, the new striker they've got in, and some bad luck, to be honest. They've
07:41 sort of run into the last couple of games against Fulham and Wolves, where they ran
07:45 into ridiculously good performances from the opposing goalkeeper. So the scorelines and
07:49 the points they've got maybe actually undersells them a little bit. I don't think they've been
07:53 that bad. Now, that being said, they've not been playing the toughest team so far. You
07:58 would play Chevrets United as well. Aston Villa away is the only tough game they've
08:01 played and they lost 4-0. So definitely a gap between them and the best teams, which
08:06 Arsenal you'd hope would be most weeks. And I think it's fair to say that Everton, you
08:11 know, you'd expect from the games they've played, you'd expect to see some decent underlying
08:14 numbers. The fact that they are still losing those games is probably more worrying to the
08:18 Everton fans than, you know, how well they might be doing from an XG point of view. And
08:22 you'd say, yeah, Arsenal should win. Just don't expect Everton to be completely terrible.
08:28 Just they're not quite as bad as I think we're seeing so far. I think they are a little bit
08:32 above the level that the points table suggests. That said, they are fairly limited. As long
08:38 as sort of the defence can deal with some of the more direct balls, because this is
08:42 Dutch football, they're still playing pretty directly. They're getting balls forward very
08:45 quickly. As long as the defence is prepared for that, as long as they handle those balls,
08:49 you would expect them to be able to keep Everton at arm's length and probably create a decent
08:53 amount of chances as well. So you're going to have to back an Arsenal win. Just don't
08:57 necessarily expect it to be a total walkover.
09:00 It's interesting you mentioned the defence, though. Obviously, we saw during the international
09:04 break, Gabriel Miguel is limping off with what looked to be some sort of thigh complaint
09:09 during his Brazil debut against Bolivia. Obviously, not entirely sure just yet as to how severe
09:15 that is, but it could well be a potential absence. I absolutely agree with you. I think
09:20 that on their day, this only goes one way. It's as simple as that. Arsenal should win
09:25 this one. But like you say, obviously, we saw last season that there is the potential
09:30 for an upset there. I know what you're saying about the sort of statistical side of Everton's
09:35 game and I agree. I think they have been really unfortunate at certain points. Although I
09:40 do think it is also worth pointing out that if it were not for some heroics from Jordan
09:44 Pickford in several games, the scorelines would have been considerably worse than they
09:49 have been. So I think it cuts both ways. But yeah, this is one that I think Arsenal are
09:56 starting to build up a little bit of a head of steam. I think we saw a very assured performance
10:01 against Manchester United in their last outing. They're still unbeaten in the league and a
10:08 couple of points behind City at the top there. So if I had to put a fiver on it, I'd put
10:14 it on a relatively comfortable Arsenal win in this one. But yeah, it's interesting as
10:21 well that you mentioned Beto. I've seen a couple of glimpses of him and I do think he
10:25 has the potential to be a really good signing for Everton. I think he's someone who they've
10:28 been really lacking, someone with a bit of presence up front, someone who knows where
10:33 the goal is. Given the money that they paid for him, you're looking at £26 million or
10:38 so. It's a gamble that they're going to hope comes off. Otherwise, they're going to be
10:42 left with a very expensive outlay for very little return. But yeah, like I said, this
10:46 weekend, I don't really see any issues for Arsenal. I think that they should be a relatively
10:50 comfortable for one for them rather. And I'll have one eye as well on West Ham against Manchester
10:57 City because I do think that if we're looking at potential banana skin and the way that
11:01 teams at the top end of the table are currently playing, I think West Ham have been as good
11:04 as anybody in the league so far, with the exception of City, of course. And I think
11:09 that that is a clash that could potentially be the one in which City first drop points
11:15 this season.
11:16 That's all we've got time for in this week's show. Join us again next week when we'll be
11:22 discussing all the latest Arsenal news and developments. In the meantime, follow all
11:26 the latest sports news at www.nationalworld.com, check us out on Facebook and Twitter @NationalWorld.
11:31 Thanks to Matt, thanks to you for listening. This show was produced by Mark Wilson.