The 3 worst Arsenal transfers of the Premier League era

2. Igors Stepanovs (£1.35m)

Those who know me will know that I'm a sucker for a funny football anecdote. Therefore, I simply HAD to include Igors Stepanovs in this list.

As excellently explained by Ray Parlour (via Football London), Arsenal signed the Latvian centre-back Stepanovs in 2000 but it was the manner in which he was signed which makes Arsenal the hilarious anomaly in his otherwise disappointing career.

Essentially, Stepanovs showed up to Arsenal for a trial and at the time, Parlour and his Arsenal teammates were winding up Martin Keown, who was a stern figure to say the least.

They knew that Stepanovs were not up to the standard set by the likes of Tony Adams and Keown himself, but they would make joke comments such as "great header" and "unbelievable tackle" to get a rise out of Keown, who believed he was going to be replaced in the starting eleven.

Little did they know that Arsene Wenger was listening to the comments and himself mistook them for being serious, the sarcasm going over his head. Low and behold, Stepanovs was signed for around £1.35m (a big fee at the time) and hilariously, he scored against Ipswich on his debut. After this, though, Stepanovs hardly featured for Arsenal again as it became clear he wasn't up to standard.

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