Nicolas Pepe snubbed a summer move to Liverpool because they didn’t view him as a priority, according to Sunday Times journalist Duncan Castles.
The Ivorian eventually made the switch to Arsenal in a £72million move [Daily Star], despite Liverpool being impressed with the winger from his time at Lille.
Castles shared that the Reds never actually made a formal offer for Pepe, with the player’s agents being left unhappy with how the Premier League leaders handled the situation.
“We know that there was contact made with Nicolas Pepe’s agent to sound him out about the possibility of coming to Liverpool,” he told the Transfer Window podcast.
“There was no bid made to Lille but the understanding of both Pepe’s representatives and Lille was that Liverpool were pursuing this in case they needed to buy a replacement.
“The ‘in case’ they were worried about was if a significant offer came in for Mohamed Salah which Salah chose to pursue and then a decision would have to be made over whether they allow the player to go.”
The Arsenal winger has struggled with his start to life in the Premier League but recently scored a brace in their Europea League victory over Vitoria.
OPINION
Given how Pepe has started his career at Arsenal, there won’t be many people involved with Liverpool who will be looking and thinking that they missed out on the winger. The Ivorian has shown glimpses of promise in the final third for the Gunners, but nothing that has proven he could be capable of replacing one of the Reds’ prolific front three at Anfield – especially Salah. The Egyptian hit the ground running immediately at Anfield when arriving from Roma, and enjoyed the most prolific season in his career, something that Pepe certainly hasn’t done. You can understand why the Ivorian international snubbed a potential move to Anfield, but there will not be anyone regretting that it didn’t happen. Jurgen Klopp has his side performing to their usual high standards, and they continue to create a gap at the top of the Premier League, something that most likely wouldn’t have been changed by the arrival of Pepe this summer.
