Inside Arsenal's Nicolas Pepe headache with Mikel Arteta needing an olive branch

 Mikel Arteta has a real headache on his hands when it comes to Nicolas Pepe. The Ivorian hasn't hit the ground running since joining the Gunners for a club-record fee of £72million back in 2019 and looks set to leave this summer. But offloading him will prove to be a difficult task

Pepe's wage expectations after banking £140,000 a week at Arsenal are sure to turn off a lot of potential suitors and with only one year remaining on his deal at the Emirates, many clubs will be far keener to wait until they can snap him up on a free next summer.

Arsenal want to recoup some of the money they paid for him four years ago. Sending him out on loan again, like they did last season to Nice, isn't an option.

However, in order to attract clubs to sign Pepe they will surely have to put him in the shop window by giving him minutes during Arsenal's pre-season tour of America.

Pepe returned to London Colney last week to train with the first team and is expected to be named in Arteta's 30-man squad, which should be released in the coming days. Last year it came out on July 13

That being said, Pepe wasn't spotted travelling over to Germany with the team as they prepare for their pre-season tour with a training camp at Adidas headquarters.