Liverpool journalist Josh Williams has been shedding some light on the Merseyside club’s previous transfer interest in Arsenal winger Nicolas Pepe.
This comes after Williams recently featured on the latest episode of the Liverpool Echo’s Blood Red Podcast, which mainly focused on Reds winger Diogo Jota.
On the topic of the attacking players Liverpool have previously been linked with, Williams had this to say on Pepe.
He said: “Liverpool were vaguely linked with him a few years back, but I think Liverpool actually shot that one down quite a bit, but I’m inclined to think that if he did come to Liverpool, [Jurgen] Klopp would have used him really efficiently. He would have come in when he felt he could thrive. Rather than the way he’s currently being perceived, I’d expect him to be looked at as one of the league’s best attackers, probably – just simply because of how Klopp integrates these players in; he doesn’t rush them, gives them time, brings them in when the matches are correct.”
Arsenal signed the winger back in the 2019 summer transfer window from LOSC Lille for a fee of £72 million. Since arriving in England, the 25-year-old, who is currently valued at £36 million, has made 54 appearances for Arsenal, in which he has managed to score 11 goals and provide 12 assists along the way (per Transfermarkt).
Last season, Pepe was Arsenal’s highest-rated player according to WhoScored, which gave him a season rating of 7.06/10 for his performances across 31 Premier League appearances, in which he managed to score five goals and provide six assists.
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TIF Thoughts on Josh Williams’ comments on Pepe…
Even though Pepe had a solid debut season with Arsenal in the Premier League, Liverpool showed last year that they could manage in the league without him, with Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah both getting higher season ratings than the Arsenal man (per WhoScored).
In our view, it’s hard to predict what might have happened with Pepe if he had gone to Liverpool instead of Arsenal, but it seems likely that he would have got more playing time at Arsenal rather than the Reds due to the prominence of Salah and Mane, with both having played in over 30 league matches last season.