The Groningen loan may be what Pepi needs, but it also puts his future at Augsburg in doubt
It’s easy to see why Ricardo Pepi’s loan move from Augsburg to Groningen was so desirable for all parties. That is not a good thing.
Yes, he’s only 19. Yes, he’s got a contract with the Bundesliga outfit for four more years. But a club like Augsburg doesn’t spend $20 million on anyone and loan them out within a year unless there is something seriously amiss.
From club-record signing to shipped out nine months later, the Pepi story at Augsburg is off to the worst possible start.
Pepi had plenty of options on the table before he moved to Augsburg. Wolfsburg was his expected destination before he changed his mind at the last minute, while Chelsea and Wolves were also interested. Bayern Munich wanted to sign him as a developmental player, while Ajax was also sniffing around.
It’s easy to say now that Augsburg wasn’t the best place for Pepi to go, but there were plenty of obvious questions at the time of the move, too.
He was in a new league in a new country. He was joining a bad offensive team fighting for relegation midway through the season. And he was 18.
Instant success was always going to be a tall task. But with a $20m price tag, it was also going to be expected.
And make no mistake, Pepi was not brought in as a developmental prospect, he was brought to help Augsburg win right away. Pepi played 30 minutes in his first appearance, then started the next two matches.
He would only start two more games the rest of the way.
Season two starts slow
If Pepi’s first season was understandably tough, season two was expected to be better. After all, he’d have a full preseason under his belt and more experience in Germany overall.
Instead, after five total games and 103 minutes, Pepi is gone until next season.
The swiftness with which Augsburg decided Pepi is still not ready to help the team is alarming, and his stats in Germany so far make for some nightmarish viewing.In 16 games at Augsburg (five starts), he has a total of 1.1 expected goals. He is, of course, still searching for his first actual goal.
That will likely come in the Eredivisie, notoriously a free-scoring league. Groningen’s star forward Jorgen Strand Larsen is joining Celta Vigo, opening up a real need at striker.
If he couldn’t stay in Germany, Pepi could hardly have picked a better landing spot than Groningen. He should get minutes and chances to score, neither of which would have been a guarantee in Germany.
It may be too late for him to salvage a World Cup spot with so many USMNT strikers in form, but it certainly won’t be too late to turn around a career that, one year ago, looked to be heading for the very top.
Whether that will ever happen at Augsburg, though, remains to be seen.
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