Nicolas Pepe and Arsenal. An expensive marriage that started all so well with moments of brilliance along the way, yet the love slowly burning out — a desperate protracted divorce the only option.
It’s a mighty fall indeed from a £72million coup under Unai Emery, to now being shipped off to Turkish side Trabzonspor for a mere £3million.
Yet the writing was on the wall in July. Mikel Arteta had already decided the Frenchman was not in his plans, so didn’t need to be on the club’s pre-season tour of the US.