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) /
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TOULOUSE, FRANCE – April 21: Nicolas Pepe #19 of Lille 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 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) /

Inter Milan

While Inter Milan are the least successful club of the teams on this list, their ability to spend on one big transfer shouldn’t be underestimated. Plus, they can give the 24-year-old a key selling point: Nicolas Pepe would be the face of the club and have the freedom to have play run through him.

According to L’Equipe, Inter have offered 70 million euros to Lille for Pepe’s services, which seems to be about 10 million euros short of the Ligue 1 club’s asking price. Inter should send an improved offer, since it’s hard to see another player available on the transfer market having the same impact that Pepe would have for the Serie A giants.

Inter one again qualified for the Champions League, finishing fourth for the second straight season after coming one point ahead of bitter rivals AC Milan in the standings. No other club had more possession than Inter, who finished third in shots per game and second in passing accuracy. They should be ambitious this summer after posting those encouraging attacking stats, but it is worth noting that they didn’t have a player in the league’s top 10 for goals scored.

Since Pepe was second in Ligue 1 with 22 goals, it’s reasonable to expect the young star to have a profound impact on Inter’s attack. It will be difficult to convince him to join Inter over interest from objectively bigger clubs, which could force Inter to reach deeper into their pocketbooks than they can.

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