Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta admits Nicolas Pepe's move hasn't worked.

The winger was shipped out yesterday on-loan to Nice.

Arteta said: "The club and whoever decides to bring players — whether I'm involved or whoever was involved in the past — it was always with the best intentions. We believed, they believed at the time that it was the best player they could get in the market to have an impact on the club. Some days it is not that easy. You see that everywhere.

"You get a top, top player, put him in a different context and suddenly it doesn't work. This industry is quite complicated. We try to minimise the risk as much as possible but at the end of the day they're not machines, they're human beings and they need all the factors to go right to fulfil their potential.

"He needed minutes, he has been craving minutes sand talking to me a lot about that, I couldn't guarantee that right now, what he was looking for. At some stage, if you extend that period for too long then frustration comes in and the level of performance won't get what we want and we decided that was the best thing to for all parties."

He added, "I think Nico has tried to deal with that in the best possible way, he is not responsible for the price a club pays for him. He has tried everything, his attitude and the way he is, is just phenomenal. You just have to meet the person because you just love him for the way he is. But then in terms of the decision you have to make on the pitch, who do you select, we made other decisions and obviously that has had an impact in the chances he had to prove his quality.