Fansided

5 possible landing spots for Nicolas Pepe this summer

By Kevin Parvizi

TOULOUSE, FRANCE - April 21: Nicolas Pepe #19 of Lille in action during the Toulouse V Lille, French Ligue 1 regular season match at the Stadium Municipal de Toulouse on April 21st 2019 in Toulouse, France (Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)
TOULOUSE, FRANCE - April 21: Nicolas Pepe #19 of Lille in action during the Toulouse V Lille, French Ligue 1 regular season match at the Stadium Municipal de Toulouse on April 21st 2019 in Toulouse, France (Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 5
Next
LILLE, FRANCE – APRIL 14: Nicolas Pepe of Lille following the French Ligue 1 match between Lille OSC (LOSC) and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) at Stade Pierre Mauroy on April 14, 2019 in Lille, France. (Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)
LILLE, FRANCE – APRIL 14: Nicolas Pepe of Lille following the French Ligue 1 match between Lille OSC (LOSC) and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) at Stade Pierre Mauroy on April 14, 2019 in Lille, France. (Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images) /

Manchester United

At first, Manchester United fans identified Jadon Sancho as their dream signing, but it quickly became clear that Borussia Dortmund had no intention of selling arguably the world’s best young player. Sancho was among Europe’s leaders in assists, and he is an exciting player who may have been the Bundesliga’s best individual in 2018-2019. But after once selling Ousmane Dembele to Barcelona, Dortmund aren’t ready to lose Sancho so quickly, especially now that they see themselves as competitive with Bayern Munich over the long term.

Therefore, Manchester United fans have focused on Nicolas Pepe as their ideal target. Because Pepe is an even better goal-scorer than Sancho and may have been even better statistically than the Dortmund winger, it looks like he’s the better fit for the Red Devils on paper.

While United’s failure to qualify for Champions League football could hurt their case, they are such a big club that it shouldn’t matter, pending how much they are willing to offer the 24-year-old Ivorian forward.

United look like the team that need Pepe the most, so they should offer as much as they possibly can. They have the pocketbooks to do it, and they desperately need someone with his individual goal-scoring quality. Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford are excellent attackers, but Alexis Sanchez has faded. While Sanchez could conceivably bounce back, Pepe is on the ascent and is as good as Sanchez was at his peak for Arsenal.

Home/Soccer