Former Arsenal club-record signing Nicolas Pepe has said that he almost retired from football entirely while playing for the club.
The Ivory Coast international joined the Gunners from Lille for a fee of £72 million in the summer of 2019.
Pepe had been promised that he would play a key role in Unai Emery‘s system after scoring 22 goals and providing 11 assists during his final season in France.
But despite some promising early signs, Pepe never hit top form after Emery’s successor, Mikel Arteta, was appointed in December 2019.
Although he did score 10 goals during the 2021/22 season, he scored just once in 20 appearances in the subsequent campaign.
He was then loaned out to Nice, before agreeing to terminate his Arsenal contract despite it having a year left to run.
After a season with Turkish Super Lig side Trabzonspor, Pepe is now settling into life in La Liga with Villarreal, scoring his maiden goal in a 3-1 win over Las Palmas on September 30.
Now, reflecting on his time at Arsenal, the 29-year-old told French outlet L’Equipe (via AS) of the challenges he faced while playing at the Emirates Stadium.
The Ivorian said that the criticism of his time in English football got to him, and that his loss of ‘passion’ for the game almost led to him quitting entirely.
He said: “I was bullied in London. I didn’t ask for €80 million to be paid for me.
“It was a kind of trauma, as if my passion had been taken away.
Nicolas Pepe in action for Arsenal during a pre-season friendly – Getty
“I had an aversion to football, and thought about quitting. They were talking about me as the biggest failure in the history of the Premier League.”
It is not the first time Pepe has spoken out about his stint in England.
Earlier this year, he described criticism of him online as ‘almost harassment’, and credited Arsenal fans as the only ones to support him.
He explained: “I don’t look at social media much, but if my brother told me, ‘This is what they said about you’, it would affect me unconsciously.
“It also came from the media, or from certain members of the club. They don’t realise that it can affect the mental state, the family and it affects performance.”