Unai Emery has revealed that he wanted Arsenal to sign Crystal Palace's Wilfried Zaha over Nicolas Pepe during last summer's transfer window.
The Gunners were strongly linked with Zaha ahead of the 2019-20 campaign but ultimately broke their transfer record to sign Pepe from Lille, and the Ivorian has only scored four Premier League goals this season.
Emery, who was sacked as the club's head coach in November, has claimed that he pushed hard to bring Zaha to the Emirates Stadium but was overruled by those above him.
"Pepe is a good player but he needs time. When I was there he didn't give me the performances. I was in favour of someone coming who knew the English league, more than anything so that he wouldn't need a period of adaptation. I had a meeting with Zaha, the Palace player," Emery told the Daily Mail.
"He was the player I wanted because I could see that he won so many games on his own. 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!"
Pepe has contributed six goals and eight assists in 32 appearances in all competitions this season, while Zaha has managed three goals and five assists in 30 outings for Palace.
Matt Law
