Former Arsenal manager Unai Emery has revealed how he wanted Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha over club-record signing Nicolas Pepe.
The Gunners made Ivorian international winger Pepe the most expensive player in the club’s history when they paid Lille £72m to sign him last summer.
The 24-year-old has gone to enjoy a difficult start to life in English football prompting suggestions that the money have been better spent elsewhere.
And now Emery, who was sacked last November after a poor run of results, says he was in favour of signing Zaha, a player who had proven himself a match-winner against the Gunners on a number of occasions.
“I had a meeting with Zaha, the Palace player. He was the player I wanted because I could see that he won so many games on his own,” he told the Daily Mail.
“I saw 20 Zaha games, some incredible performances and I told them that this is the player that I want for this team.
“I spoke to Zaha. I had been with him personally. And he wanted to come.
“But the club decided that Pepe was younger, he was one for the future. I said: ‘yes, but we need to win now and this lad [Zaha] wins games’. He did it to us!”
