‘Awful’: Darren Bent says Arsenal have made one of the worst signings in PL history

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Darren Bent has been discussing some of the worst signings in Premier League history on talkSPORT, and, inevitably, Nicolas Pepe came into the conversation.

Bent discussed the idea that Harry Maguire may be the worst value for money signing in the history of this league, but he had an epiphany that many of the biggest-money signings in the Premier League don’t work out.

Indeed, Bent states that the likes of Romelu Lukaku and Jadon Sancho haven’t worked out, while he labelled the signing of Pepe for £72m as awful.

Pepe one of the worst signings

Bent spoke about Pepe and some of the worst signings in recent years.

“I said something and I thought I was being harsh when I said he would be the worst value for money signing in Premier League history. Transfers over £70m don’t work out well, Lukaku hasn’t worked, Sancho hasn’t worked, the only two are Alisson and Van Dijk off the top of my head. Pepe, £72m, awful,” Bent said.

Made to look worse

The signing of Nicolas Pepe for £72m was a bad signing, don’t get us wrong, but it’s been made to look so much worse due to the presence of Bukayo Saka.

Indeed, if Saka didn’t come through the academy almost as soon as Pepe signed, then this purchase wouldn’t look anywhere near as bad as Pepe would probably still be in the Arsenal team.

However, the fact that the new £72m man was immediately outshone by an academy graduate didn’t bode well for him, and from then on, things only went downhill for the Ivorian.

He’s certainly one of Arsenal’s worst signings, but to call him one of the worst signings in Premier League history may be a bit of a stretch considering some of the dross we’ve seen in recent years.