Arteta should resist making divisive Arsenal call to avoid a transfer headache

It's been a difficult season for Mikel Arteta, but the Spaniard's ambitious rebuilding project at Arsenal is starting to finally bear fruit.

The Gunners are in pole position to clinch a top-four finish to end their multi-year exile from the Champions League. But while the Arsenal chief is on the verge of successfully steering the club back into Europe's premier competition, the club are still a long way off of being genuine title contenders again.

The Londoners seem destined to be busy once again in the transfer market, just 12 months on from spending more than any other Premier League side in the summer window. Arteta splashed out more than £150million on six new recruits last year - and the club are now in desperate need of two strikers to replace Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah, who could both quit the Emirates for free at the end of the season.

With that in mind, the last thing Arteta needs right now is for Nicolas Pepe to be angling for a summer exit. The 26-year-old became the Gunners club-record signing back in 2019, when he moved to North London from Lille in a £72m deal.

Unfortunately, Pepe has failed to live up to his gargantuan price tag. The winger endured a disappointing maiden year in England and has only made five starts for the Gunners this term, netting just once. Pepe did show signs of life with an impressive display - and a goal - in the Ivory Coast's 2-1 defeat to France last Friday.

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But Pepe's comments after the match left his long-term Arsenal future unclear. He conceded that it was "frustrating" not to play and also hinted that there have been communication issues between himself and Arteta.

And Pepe's ominous declaration that he will "see what happens" at the end of the season could evolve into a major issue for Arsenal and Arteta - even if the Gunners chief is tempted to ditch the misfiring winger.

If Arsenal are to continue their progress next year, their biggest priority has to be sourcing the elite No 9 that they currently lack. It's hard to see them challenging for major honours again without one - and they could even end up regressing if the issue isn't resolved this summer.

Achieving that is set to be complicated enough without Arsenal adding another transfer objective - such as replacing Pepe - to their summer to-do list.

The likes of Manchester City and Manchester United are also going to be in the market for a top striker in the summer. And while Arsenal may be behind their Premier League rivals in the pecking order, there are no guarantees that City and United won't obtrude on their transfer targets if they fail to acquire the likes of Erling Haaland and Harry Kane.

Arsenal simply can't afford for a repeat of January, where they opted to bide their time after missing out on Dusan Vlahovic. Any repeat of that would be catastrophic; hence why they need to focus all of their attention on signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's long-term replacement.

Whether Pepe still has a long-term future in north London isn't clear. There's no denying that he hasn't had the desired impact since Arsenal broke the bank to bring him to North London - and he's running out of time to convince that he can still come good.

But cutting their losses on Pepe this summer would just give Arteta and Arsenal an unnecessary headache; they have far more striking issues to contend with.