When Nicolas Pepe ghosted past what was a fairly immortal-looking Virgil van Dijk at the time on his Arsenal debut, fans were sold the fantasy that their £72m man was set to hit the greatest heights.
Four years later, however, and that same £72m man that arrived with so much promise has just endured a failed loan move to OGC Nice, and goes down as one of Edu Gaspar's biggest mistakes as Arsenal sporting director.
In many ways, it shows how far Arsenal have come on and off the pitch, the fact that their arrivals since Pepe have shown a clear plan. They've gone from the failed winger to signing successes such as Gabriel Jesus, Ben White, Aaron Ramsdale, and Oleksandr Zinchenko.
It won't be long before the £72m fee is displaced as the club's record deal, either, with Declan Rice reportedly set to arrive for £105m from West Ham United this summer.
The North London club still face a significant loss on Pepe, however, according to transfer insider Dean Jones, who told Football FanCast:
“I’m not sure anyone’s gonna give them more than £20m for Nicolas Pepe anymore. Let’s be honest, Arsenal, when they bought him, they way overpaid.
"There was no need for them to ever go as high as they did in that moment. And they got a bit carried away, and it really epitomised the phase that Arsenal were in at that moment in time. They’ve come back from there, they’ve overcome it.”
What is the transfer market value of Nicolas Pepe?
Having joined Arsenal for £72m in 2019, Pepe is now worth just £15.34m (€18m), according to Transfermarkt in what is a drop-off of £56.66m over the course of four dismal years for the Ivory Coast winger.
With that, the question comes to the fore of, what went wrong?
Prior to his Premier League arrival, the 28-year-old scored 23 goals, and assisted a further 12 in all competition for Lille to attract such high interest from the Gunners. Things went downhill from there, however.
In his debut season for Arsenal, he put up, in fairness, some respectable numbers, at least, with 18 goal involvements in all competitions. Though, this was still a major drop-off from the player those in North London believed they had signed in the summer.
21 goal involvements in Pepe's second season in England showed potential, but any promise came to a crashing halt in the following campaign as one goal in 20 Premier League appearances, combined with the emergence of Bukayo Saka, spelt the beginning of the end for his Arsenal career.
A loan move can reignite a career for some, but the former Lille man failed to find his feet in Ligue 1 the second time around, making just 19 appearances with seven goal involvements.
Leaving Nice and returning to his parent club Arsenal, it remains to be seen where the £140k-per-week Pepe ends up next. One certainty is that the Gunners will be forced to settle on a significant loss on one of their biggest-ever transfer regrets.