Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has been shifting the deadwood at the club to resounding success over the past few years, now boasting a cohesive and formidable outfit challenging for the Premier League title.
The Gunners are flying high, atop the Premier League table and looking set for a prolonged period challenging for silverware across multiple fronts after years of instability, mired in mediocrity.
The work was not done overnight, and Arteta deserves all the adulation for his work in crafting a successful outfit from a withered crop, struggling despite the individual talents on display.
No player typifies the changes made at the club more so than Nicolas Pepe, who completed a club-record £72m transfer from French Ligue 1 side LOSC Lille in 2019.
The Ivory Coast international was supposed to be a sensation, having scored 23 goals and supplied 12 assists from 41 appearances in the term preceding his Premier League arrival.
For such a lucrative outlay, Pepe failed miserably to repay the faith and live up to the tag, scoring just five league goals in his debut term.
With a total 27 strikes and 21 assists from 112 displays for the outfit, the 27-year-old certainly didn't forge the prolific brilliance that was expected, now on loan at OGC Nice since the summer, after flattering to deceive.
How much has Pepe cost Arsenal?
The 35-cap ace has been boasting a £110k-per-week wage since his arrival at the Emirates Stadium, and factoring in that the fleet-footed dud may be paid for this term by his loan outfit, Arsenal have been rinsed roughly £16m in salary alone – at the very least – over the 159 weeks he spent plying his trade in north London.
Running such figures in tandem with the exorbitant transfer fee, and, well, the Gunners have spent roughly £88m on a player that was shipped out in the summer preceding the most fruitful season in a long time.
Branded a "disaster" by journalist Matt Spiro, the one-time FA Cup winner has only scored eight goals and served one assist from 25 appearances back in France this season, compounding the fight for him to reclaim his place in Arteta's plans.
And that's only what is known; since signing for Nice on loan last August, details of the wage structure have not been reported with conviction, meaning that there is every possibility that owner Stan Kroenke and KSE have been plugged away drip by drip, Pepe still leeching funds from the owners each week.
With Arsenal firing at full-throttle this season, forging success scarcely seen in north London for the best part of two decades, it is increasingly unlikely that Pepe will find a place back in Arteta's plans, especially when considering the fluid feats of the established front-three.
The transfer has indeed been an unequivocal 'disaster', and with Pepe costing the outfit £88m, at the bare minimum, it must be chalked off as a failure.