Top 10 Arsenal Flops – When Wenger Got it Wrong
Arsene Wenger is undoubtedly one of the greatest and most successful foreign managers in the FA Premier League. One of the managerial skills that Frenchman Wenger is renowned for is bringing in virtually unknown players from abroad to Arsenal and making them a success in the Premiership. But on occasion, Wenger has got it wrong and bought a real stinker who was unable to win over the fans at Highbury and the Emirates. So who are the players that Wenger bought that in hindsight he wish he hadn’t and looking back at his tenure at Arsenal, who are Wenger’s transfer flops?
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10: Luis Boa Morte – The Portuguese winger largely flattered to deceive during his time at Arsenal, and has continued to do so for the rest of his career. There is nothing much to remember about his Arsenal career, as Boa Morte is a decent player but never fulfilled the potential that Wenger obviously saw in him. He cost just £1.75 million so wasn’t much of a gamble, but many Arsenal fans will feel that Boa Morte could have become a good player and ultimately missed his opportunity.
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9: Pascal Cygan – The 6 ft 4 French central defender went to Arsenal in 2002 for a fee of £2 million. For most of his 4 year career he was considered as a fringe player and failed to break into the first team due to a number of lacklustre performances. Cygan did manage to make 63 Premiership appearances for Arsenal, but when he left in 2006 the Gunners’ fans weren’t exactly disappointed as he was never really cut out to play football at the very top level.
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8: Sylvain Wiltord – Wenger signed fellow Frenchman Wiltord for a club record fee of £13 million in 2000 and did have some career highlights at Arsenal, including scoring the winning goal at Old Trafford to secure the double in 2002. However, the striker never represented good value for money and left Highbury for nothing after scoring 49 goals in 4 years. Some Arsenal fans will have fond memories of Wiltord, but Wenger never really recouped the money he spent on him.
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7: Christopher Wreh – Wreh is the cousin of former FIFA World Player of the Year George Weah, and maybe Arsene thought he would have received some of Weah’s footballing genes. The Liberian striker only managed to bag 5 goals in his 3 year Arsenal career and his form steadily went into decline after one decent season in 1997/98. He ended up as their 4th choice striker behind Wright, Bergkamp and Anelka and was squeezed out after the arrival of a certain Thierry Henry.
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6: Igors Stepanovs – When Wenger signed the Latvian defender in 2000 many Arsenal fans said who? And when he left in 2003 the story was much the same. Stepanovs never became a first team regular and Wenger may well steer clear of signing Latvian players in the future. The Latvian was out of his depth and when he partnered Grimandi in defence against Manchester United in 2001, the 6-1 defeat that followed will be a game that Arsenal fans will want to forget.
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5: Giovanni van Bronckhorst – Wenger signed the Dutchman in 2001 to try and fill the void left by the departure of Petit. He cost the club £8.5 million, but a serious cruciate knee ligament injury saw him slip down the pecking order and he eventually left to play for Barcelona. Gio was a reasonable player, earning almost 100 caps for Holland, but he never made it Arsenal and it was just one of those things when he failed to make a name for himself at Highbury.
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4: Kaba Diawara – The less said about the Guinean striker the better, and you must wonder what Wenger was thinking when he signed him. He only spent 1 season at Arsenal, played 12 games and didn’t manage to score a goal, hardly a glowing report of his talent. He did show some promise and maybe if he had scored a goal he might have even managed another one, but we will never know and he remains one of Wenger’s worst flops.
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3: Jose Antonio Reyes – Reyes never completely settled at Arsenal and his time in North London was hampered by his inconsistent performances. The Spanish winger soon became homesick after signing from Seville for £10.5 million in 2004 and said that life in London wasn’t what he thought it would be. Many fans then questioned his commitment to the club, as he was repeatedly quoted in the Spanish press as wanting a move away from the club, before he eventually left for Spain in 2006.
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2: Richard Wright – When Wenger was looking for a long-term replacement for David Seaman he chose Wright at his man. But the fact that he only stayed at Arsenal for 1 year of his 5 year contract tells you all you need to know about his spell at the club. His only season as Arsenal was full of high-profile errors, including punching the ball into his own net against Charlton, and Wright was soon offloaded to Everton, but he did pick up a Premier League winners’ medal for his troubles.
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1: Francis Jeffers – The striker cost Arsenal £8 million from Everton back in 2001 and that was hardly money well spent. His 4 Premiership goals for the club came at a cost of £2 million a goal, and after 3 seasons in which he only played 22 games he was shipped off to Charlton for £2.6 million. The potential that Jeffers showed at Everton was never realised at Arsenal, and his time at Highbury was dogged by injuries and Jeffers never lived up to his tag of being a ‘fox in the box.’
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Not even the great Arsene Wenger can get it right all of the time and Arsenal fans would rather forget many of these players. But do any other Wenger signings deserve to be on the list?
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I didn’t think that Wiltord or Van Bronckhorst were that bad for Arsenal – 49 goals in 4 years is better than a lot of modern strikers notch and Gio was a good little player when fit. I’d maybe consider the likes of Oleg Luzhny, Jeremie Aliardiere and Nelson Vivas as Wenger flops instead
do a list on chelsea please
you’ll see some crazy stuff! this is just pocket money.
Maybe I meant Christopher Wreh
Wreh still played an important part in the Gunners’ Double winning season of 1997-98, scoring in vital 1-0 Premier League wins against Wimbledon and Bolton Wanderers, and scoring the only goal of the Gunners’ FA Cup semi-final win over Wolves.
Fabian Cabellero
Wreh? He scored the winner in the FA Cup semi-final and the only goal in 2 1-0 wins that won us the Premiership title and played a great game in the FA Cup Final. All for £250k. I’d willingly take 11 failures like that!
Wiltord wasn’t a failure either. He was played out of position most of the time but still played well and scored plenty of important goals.
If you want failures then Baptista and Diawara are your men.
Wiltord and Wreh have no place on this list. Or Gio. Especially when the likes of Inamoto and Diawara don’t appear. We picked Wreh up for peanuts and his goal in 1998 at Wimbledon on its own justified his Arsenal career. Jeffers is rightly at the top though.
Boa Morte – Not a bad player, just not good enough for Arsenal
Wiltord – He scored 15 goals a season, why is he on the list?
Van Bronkhorst – Plagued by injury. Not a flop. Went on to win the Champions League with Barcelona
Reyes – Had all the potential and talent but lacked character
manninger
vivas
senderos
I’d take Wiltord off the list especially given the importance of some of this goals…and replace his with “The Beast.” Arsenal pursued Baptista over two seasons and when he did arrive contributed nothing.
Manninger??? He was worth every penny for the win at Old Trafford to secure the League. One of the most exciting matches in club history.
shabaan
AW HAS PICKED SOME NUMPTY KEEPERS AND C/H’s
someone else must have spotted vermy
No way was Van Bronkhorst a flop and I was very upset to see him go, never knowing the true story behind it. Barcelona do not sign flops and he was been great for them.
The worst for Arsenal in recent time for me has got to be Baptista. He missed so many easy chances for us and I was pleased to see just last night that he continues this skill for Roma when he sliced his shot wide from about 5 yards.
Hope the rumour that he might join Spurs is true – what a larf
some of the younger gunners will not remember a couple of Wenger stinkers yes stand up Remi Garde & Alberto Mendez Rodriguez!
that list includes double winners? how can they be flops? wiltord?? reyes? even boa morte has medals, christopher wreh scored the winner in an f.a cup semi and in 5 1-0 wins in a championship season, so every spurs player must be a flop? andmost liverpool players?
This artical has no credibility with the inclusion of Wiltord! End of!
What a stupid article! Wiltord, Wreh, Reyes, VanBronkhorst all played crucial roles in trophy winning seasons. Wiltord remains one of the highest scoring right midfielders in Prem history as that’s where he played for almost his entire career for Arsenal. Wreh scored vital goals as a sub in the prem winning season – Bolton away from 25yards absolutely vital 1-0 win and scored the winner in the FA Cup Semi-Final.
Do your homework and stop writing rubbish!
Garde was a reasonable defender. Alberto Mendez was bought for about 35k as a gamble, in similar way that Bischoff was a cheap gamble, can hardly call him a flop.
davor suker! instead of reyes and wiltord… this article itself means flop
It’s interesting that none of these players are recent. His skill at judging talent talent, notwithstanding keepers, has obviously improved.
A couple of people mentioned the Beast, but he was just a loan, and he only lasted one year to boot. To think that he scored four goals against Poo — how did that ever happen?
diarra? baptista?? silvestre?
Boa Morte was not a flop,he has the potential,but never really showed it..Wiltord should not be in the list,he was one of the most favourited striker to start during his time in Arsenal..I did’nt get the chance to see Wreh during his time as I was too young at that time,but I felt that by the comments above,he’s not a bad player..Van Bronchorst and Reyes were also non-flops,they have the skills and potential,but one was plagued by injuries,while Reyes was too young at that time and he was homesick..Couldn’t really blame them..I thought that Lauren was a flop,although he was in the first team during his Arsenal time..Many supporters were happy to let him leave..Even Jeffers,Aliadere and Diarra are flops..to those who says Silvestre,I don’t really think he’s a flop..He had certainly improved,although he had just played in the League Cup..
Lauren was not a flop, he’s just mediocre.
Ade, Diaby, eboue, denilson are flops if u consider the high standards of the invincible period.
Walcott might turn into a flop. note i said MIGHT.
Song nearly was a flop till he changed it all End Jan 09.
Adebayor and silvestre
SILVESTRE. WORST SIGNING IN YEARS.
Who could forget Tomas Danilevičius, Gullieme Norbert, Guileme Wamuz, William Huck, Richard Hughes, Jehed Muntasser, Stefan Malz, Oh this article did, far bigger flops than Boa Morte who had Overmars ahead of him, Wiltord, who spent 3 of his 4 seasons having to play on the wing, GVB who had a serious injury then found the emergence of Cole and skills of Pires keeping him out of the side.
I agree with a few of those listed but not all. Wiltord whilst not my favorite player did bang in a few, Reyes, 2 things did him, 1 the game against Manure when gary neville was allowed to kick him up in the air for 70+ mins without a caution, 2 his relationship with Henry was awful, Gio except for injuries was quality, Boa Morte did score that cracking goal. I don’t agree with arsenalfantildie, Suker was never given a chance plus he was at the end of his career. Spot on woody, defenders & goalkeepers are not Wenger’s strengths, although he’s got a winner in Vermaelen
i think selling diarra was his worst….look at what a brilliant player he is now
Are there really people who think Lauren was a flop??? That is unbelievable!
Biggest flop is Jeffers, you got that right. But Wiltord should never ever be on such a list. the guy is a legend!
Stepanovs and Bischoff should`nt even been footballers…
And don’t forget for Lassana Diarra. He just played 1/2 season for Arsenal. But now, Lass ready to be Madrid legend !
They aren’t all really flops are they Wiltord was class and has a world cup winners medal. Reyes still plays in la liga and van bronckhorst moved to Barcelona. Boa morte isn’t that bad I think your struggling to make a point if those are the worst players you can find!
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