Nicolas Pepe has spoken candidly about the communication breakdown that he believes ultimately ended his time at Arsenal, identifying the absence of meaningful dialogue with manager Mikel Arteta as his single greatest regret from his time at the Emirates Stadium.
The Ivorian winger, speaking in an exclusive interview conducted for Pulse Sports Nigeria and facilitated by LaLiga, did not frame his remarks as an attack on Arteta. Instead, he offered a measured assessment of a relationship defined, in his telling, by silence. “He’s a coach who asks for certain things, where sometimes it was a little complicated for me, where from time to time we didn’t have that communication that could sometimes allow me to feel confident,” Pepe said. “I think that’s what I regret the most, not having had enough communication with him.”
Arsenal signed Pepe from Lille in August 2019 for £72 million, a figure that made him the club’s most expensive signing at the time. He had closed the previous Ligue 1 campaign as the second-highest scorer behind Kylian Mbappé, arriving with a reputation as a direct, incisive winger capable of decisive moments. However, the weight of that transfer fee shaped how every subsequent performance was evaluated. Pepe has previously acknowledged that had the fee been closer to £20 million, the perception of his Arsenal career would have been substantially different.
Across 112 appearances for the club, Pepe contributed 27 goals and 21 assists — figures that, stripped of the financial context, represent consistent if not spectacular output. He arrived under Unai Emery, with Arteta taking charge just four months later in December 2019. His most productive season came in 2020–21, when he scored 16 goals across all competitions, though he was unable to secure a regular starting position as Bukayo Saka‘s emergence reshaped Arsenal’s right flank. His most celebrated moment in north London came in 2020, when he provided the assist for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s winning goal in the FA Cup final against Chelsea.
A loan move to Nice in 2022 yielded limited returns due to injuries and inconsistent form. Arsenal terminated his contract a year ahead of schedule in 2023, recouping nothing from the original outlay. He joined Trabzonspor on a free transfer before Villarreal signed him, also on a free, in 2024.
The turnaround at Villarreal has been marked. Pepe won the LaLiga Player of the Month award in August 2025 and subsequently extended his contract with the Spanish club through to 2028. Central to that resurgence, by his own account, is the relationship he has built with coach Marcelino.
“With coach Marcelinho, it’s quite the opposite. I think every day we discuss everything, football, not football, whatever. You immediately feel the confidence of the coach,” Pepe said. He elaborated on the broader principle: “That’s the importance of a manager for me. As I’ve always said, I prefer to have a coach who is totally transparent with me, whether it’s on the good or the bad sides. It allows me to move forward and progress.”
The contrast Pepe draws is instructive in the broader context of player management at elite clubs. For a winger whose effectiveness depends on instinct, belief, and the freedom to take risks in one-on-one situations, uncertainty about his standing within a squad can directly undermine performance. Pepe’s account suggests that for him, knowing where he stood — even if the feedback was critical — would have been preferable to ambiguity.
Arteta has since built Arsenal into consistent Premier League title contenders, with the club finishing second in consecutive seasons before their ongoing 2025–26 campaign. Saka, Leandro Trossard, and Gabriel Martinelli have become the primary attacking outlets in a system that has evolved considerably since Pepe’s departure. Whether more direct communication between manager and player could have altered the trajectory of Pepe’s Arsenal career remains a matter of speculation, but the winger’s renaissance in Spain offers a compelling case study in the role managerial relationships play in unlocking — or suppressing — a footballer’s potential.
