Arsenal’s 10 Worst Signings Ever Under Arsene Wenger

Ronnie Macdonald - Flickr Creative Commons
Ronnie Macdonald - Flickr Creative Commons /
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Ronnie Macdonald - Flickr Creative Commons
Ronnie Macdonald – Flickr Creative Commons /

With the transfer window in full swing and Arsene Wenger holding out for that perfect signing forArsenal, we thought it prudent to go through some of those guys that were not perfect signings, just as a reminder of what can happen when the wrong player signs.

It is inevitable in a game like football, with so many moving pieces, so many facets to cover and so many personalities to mesh that you are going to turn up some duds from time to time. You never know how a player is going to react to a new league, a new country, a new team. To again borrow Arsene Wenger’s saying, it is not like a supermarket where you can just waltz in and buy exactly what you want. This is a human being, and there are no supermarkets for those.

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Even the ever vigilant Arsene Wenger makes some mistakes from time to time. However, it may be the failures that have caused him to become so stingy in the transfer market. Picking out the perfect player is not an option for him, it is an absolute necessity.

To an extent, the bad signings really have dwindled the longer Wenger has been at the club and the longer he has had to understand the club and its surrounding culture, but that does not mean that his most recent blunders are excluded from this list.

So how did we judge what made a signing any worse than another? Well, several factors went into it. First of all, the cost is a major factor. There is nothing quite like breaking a club record transfer fee for a guy that falls flat on his face. However, you will not find any terrible signings on this list that were free. Take Amaury Brischoff for example. He was free. His injuries hindered him and he produced just 26 minutes of actual EPL play time before being released.

But what did Arsenal really lose? Nothing.

This is a list for the people that an educated individual like Arsene Wenger actually spent money on. Guys who flopped, floundered and dismantled their professional careers while wearing the pride of North London on their back.

Another contributing factor is time spent on the team. Failing for six months and failing for nine years are two completely different levels of failure.

And so, without further ado, let’s get started at the back with the 10 most awful signing of the Wenger era.

Next: Number 10