Arsene Wenger didn’t make masses of mistakes at Arsenal, especially during his first decade in charge of the club. Yet, after the breakup of the squad that won the Premier League title in 2003/2004, going unbeaten throughout the season, things started to go awry for the Gunners.

The Frenchman’s business in the transfer market became increasingly poor and it led to the North Londoners going on a nine-year trophy drought, before winning the FA Cup in 2014.

The likes of Lucas Perez, Rob Holding, and Sead Kolasinac weren’t exactly the players to spark a revival and drained the club financially while offering little on the pitch.

One of his worst signings however was Shkodran Mustafi, who rinsed the club throughout his five-year spell in London.

How much did Shkodran Mustafi cost Arsenal?

The German defender joined the club in a £35m deal from Valencia back in the summer of 2016 and aged just 24 at the time, he was expected to be part of the Arsenal backline for the foreseeable future.

Here was a World Cup winner (winning with Germany in 2014) and a player who had featured 30 times in La Liga the season before arriving at the Emirates, £35m sounded like it could prove to be a bargain.

Despite playing over 150 times for the Gunners, he wasn’t exactly spectacular, with a wide catalogue of errors plaguing his spell in London.

He cost his side on no fewer than six occasions during the 2018/2019 campaign, with his worst display saved for a tie against Crystal Palace, where he failed to deal with a harmless ball over the top that allowed Wilfried Zaha to score, before being booked for diving and the 3-2 defeat cost Arsenal a top four spot.

He left in February 2021, with his contract being ripped up and it was hardly a surprise to read Charles Watts, Arsenal correspondent for Goal, describe the centre-back as a “horrendous signing”.

The defender rinsed the club for millions during his 230-week stay. Combining his £35m transfer fee with the £88k-per-week wages he earned during his time at The Emirates (£20.2m over four and a half years) the flop cost the club an astronomical total of £55.2m, which could have, potentially, been spent on alternative players.

It wasn’t one of Wenger’s finest moves and perhaps summarised his final few years at the Emirates as the German ended up being a woeful addition to the squad.