Why Liverpool Didn’t Chase A Move For Nicolas Pepe

Liverpool were hugely linked to signing Lille winger, Nicolas Pepe but they turned out so uninterested in the player that they reportedly sent a call through to the French club to tell them so.

Nicolas Pepe secured a move to the Emirates stadium in a greatly improved transfer window for Arsenal where they shelled out more than £130m in transfer fees.

Negotiations over the West African were duly protracted because of the interest of other clubs in the winger, amongst which is Liverpool who were supposed to have held talks with Samir Khiat, Pepe’s agent.

Indeed, according to Goal.com, Liverpool never listed the Ivorian as a transfer target and were seemingly concerned about reports linking them with the former Lille man, so much so that Liverpool informed his French employers in person so.

The Reds’ sporting director, Michael Edwards reportedly rang Lille manager Christophe Galtier to explain the situation and allege that the reports were likely being stirred up in order to drive a bidding war for Pepe’s services.

Pepe, 24 was a highly touted prospect in the Ligue 1 last summer having notched 22 goals and 11 assists for his Lille side.

But Reds boss, Jurgen Klopp repeatedly said openly that Liverpool weren’t going to spend big in the summer after several expensive windows

Klopp said back in July: “I said last year that to improve the team is not easy with reasonable money. With crazy money, you always can do it – okay, you pay whatever you want, then it’s possible.

“We are not a club like that. We cannot do that. We are really wealthy but we cannot do what some other teams are doing. That’s how it is.

“But we don’t have to. We have to find solutions during the season. Yes, you find sometimes the solution in the transfer market and we have done that. I don’t have to name the players, everybody knows. ‘But otherwise you have to find the solutions on the training ground and that’s what we do now.

“We are still looking, but it will not be the [biggest] transfer window of LFC. It just will be a transfer window. We will see what we do, and if we haven’t done anything by the end it will be for different reasons.”

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