Nicolas Pepe's agent has been speaking about the winger's record £72m transfer to Arsenal.
The 24-year-old completed his move to the Emirates Stadium last Thursday in a deal which has made him the Gunners' most expensive player ever, eclipsing the £56m fee paid to land Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in January 2018.
But for the north London outfit to conclude a deal for Pepe they had to fend off competition from the likes of Liverpool - who can offer Champions League football this season - and the player's agent has explained how that was possible.
"For us it was the best decision for Nicolas, it was the right choice. We always made the footballing choices, rather than financial ones," Samir Khiat told L'Equipe Mercato, as per Get Football News France.
"Arsenal can bring him a continuity in terms of what he did before. And also in terms of playing time. What he did last year… he has no limits.
"He was sought after by the biggest clubs in Europe, there were offers from top five European clubs. Arsenal have an ambitious project, they want to go to the next level, as you have seen with the names linked to them in recent days, and Nicolas can become a huge part of that.
"For a footballer, faith and belief is everything. We wanted absolute certainty that Nicolas would play. A lot of clubs interested already have their attacking trios set.
"The main aspect for us today was about thinking what’s best for him… stories about us going where the commission was best is rubbish.
"When you come to a club like that, there are already players in their place. It is difficult, you would go there and say you play in cup matches, you play when the front three are not there.
"Our aim was for Nicolas to be someone important to give him all the elements to show his ability.
"The future will show us to be right or wrong, Arsenal are still a big club who play in the biggest league in the world.
"I want to thank the Lille President Lopez, because when the first offers came in, the president was still waiting for two big offers to come in from two enormous European clubs.
"Those bids would have been worth more than Arsenal were offering.
"But he said to us that we could choose before even formally receiving them, even though they would have made Lille more money, I thought that was very classy."
