Arteta never talked to me — Nicolas Pepe reveals biggest regret that ended his Arsenal nightmare

In an exclusive interview assisted by LaLiga, Nicolas Pepe opened up on the communication breakdown that defined and ultimately destroyed his relationship with Mikel Arteta at Arsenal. 

The £72m man says his biggest regret at the club is not having "enough communication" with his manager. He contrasts that sharply with life at Villarreal, where coach Marcelino speaks with the African MVP nominee daily and has rebuilt his confidence from the ground up.

There are many ways a £72 million transfer can go wrong. Poor form, injuries or a style that does not fit the system. At Arsenal, Pepe experienced versions of all of them. 

But the explanation he gives in this exclusive interview, conducted for Pulse Sports Nigeria and facilitated by LaLiga, is more elemental than any tactical mismatch. The problem, he says, was silence.

"We'll start with Arteta," Pepe said, when asked by Pulse Sports to compare the managers and what tactical approach his coach in Spain’s LaLiga has deployed to unlock him. 

He paused before delivering the verdict. "I think that's what I regret the most, not having had enough communication with him."

It is a striking admission, not least because Pepe is careful, even now, not to make it an attack. He does not blame Arteta for his struggles in isolation. He does not rewrite history. He simply identifies, with the quiet clarity of a man who has had years to process it, the one thing that might have changed everything.

When Arsenal signed Pepe from Lille in August 2019 for £72 million, the figure was staggering enough to warp how every subsequent performance was judged. 

He had finished the previous Ligue 1 season second only to Kylian Mbappe in goals, a devastating, direct winger capable of moments of genuine brilliance. But £72 million buys you not just a footballer, but an expectation that is almost impossible to satisfy.

Pepe acknowledged as much in earlier interviews: if the fee had been £20 million, the story of his Arsenal career would have been told completely differently. 

His 27 goals and 21 assists across 112 appearances would have looked like solid, consistent output. Instead, they became evidence for the prosecution, underwhelming data points in a case built on a price tag he had never asked for and could not escape.

• 2019: Arrival - Signed from Lille for £72m, then Arsenal's costliest ever purchase. Handed the No.19 shirt. Joined under Unai Emery, Mikel Arteta took charge four months later.

• 2020: FA Cup Glory - Provided the assist for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's winning goal in the FA Cup final against Chelsea, arguably his finest moment in red and white.

• 2020–21: Best Season - Scored 16 goals across all competitions, including a Europa League run. Still couldn't nail down a starting spot as Bukayo Saka's rise began to reshape Arsenal's right flank.

• 2022: Loan to Nice - Returned to France but struggled with injuries and form away from the glare of London.

• 2023: Departure - Arsenal terminated his contract a year early, recouping nothing from the original £72m outlay. He joined Trabzonspor on a free transfer.

• 2024: Villarreal signed him on a free. Won LaLiga Player of the Month in August 2025. Extended contract to 2028. The renaissance was underway.

The contrast Pepe draws with his current coach is not subtle. Where Arteta is described through absence, of conversation, of confidence, his Villarreal boss is described through abundance.

He expanded on what that daily communication means to him as a player:

It is a philosophy that reflects a fundamental truth about elite footballers,  that confidence is not merely a byproduct of form, but its precondition. 

A player who does not know where he stands, who cannot read what his manager thinks of him, who hears nothing good or bad, is a player operating in a vacuum. For a winger who relies on instinct, freedom, and belief to take defenders on, that vacuum is fatal.

Pepe does not say Arteta is a bad manager. He could hardly argue that, given the Spaniard has since turned Arsenal into genuine Premier League title contenders. 

But what he suggests is something more personal and more damning: that the methods which work for many players did not work for him, and that nobody at the club, manager or otherwise, built the bridge that might have changed that.

The numbers from Pepe's 2025–26 campaign at Villarreal tell a story that Arsenal fans may find bittersweet. 

Five goals and four assists in LaLiga across 29 appearances, including decisive moments against Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. A LaLiga Player of the Month award in August 2025. A contract extension through 2028. A player, in short, who still has it, and who needed only to be trusted to show it.

Premier League clubs have reportedly taken notice. Reports earlier this year suggested Everton and Wolves are among clubs monitoring Pepe ahead of the summer window. 

At 30, he is not the explosive force he was in his Lille peak, but he is a sharper, more intelligent version of himself, liberated by a coaching relationship built on exactly the transparency he says he craved at Arsenal.

The story of Nicolas Pepe's career, refracted through this interview, becomes something more interesting than the familiar "expensive flop" narrative. 

It becomes a study in what goes unsaid in football, the conversations that don't happen, the confidence that is never offered, the silence that, in the end, says everything.