Arsenal FC: Reviewing Arsene Wenger's Transfer Flops in Recent Times

Arsene Wenger is widely regarded as an alchemist in football because of his amazing ability to unearth a rare gem before putting it through a thorough refining process so that it could shine beyond doubt like changing lead to gold in the days of old. Down the years, rare gems have been unraveled at Arsenal and the world bowed at their feet.

In 2004, the world stared in bewilderment as Thierry Henry swept England aside with his va va voom style of play that had sultry dribbling skills, amazing bursts of pace and lots of goals. However, Henry’s exploits on the pitch were not enough as he was ousted from the top of the pile that year by a fellow Frenchman, and the Pope of Modern-day Football, His Royal Football Holiness Zinedine Zidane.

Arsene Wenger can actually start his own movie series of all the signings he has made since his arrival 15 years ago, but I’d like to have a look at the Good, the Bad and the Ugly even though my main focus is on the transfer flops that I can regard as the ugly.

The Good

This is the class that belongs to the best players brought to the club by Arsene Wenger. Thierry Henry certainly tops this list and, in my opinion, Cesc Fabregas comes in at second place. Other great players like Robert Pires, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira are also in the list. Recently, Gunners like Aaron Ramsey, Thomas Vermaelen, Bacary Sagna and Robin van Persie have been proudly inducted to the list.

The Bad

The list called ‘bad’ doesn’t necessarily mean that their performances on the pitch were atrocious. I prefer to throw more light on their attitude towards the twilight of their Arsenal careers. Mercenary William Gallas can certainly be regarded as a bad boy in this list after single-handedly destroying the team’s morale following Gael Clichy’s error against Birmingham in the 2007/08 season before his shenanigans off the pitch became enough for him to be stripped of the Arsenal captaincy.

There’s also a sub-category of bad boys that decided to let go off Arsenal for the lure of the big greens and they include players like Emmanuel Adebayor, Ca$hley Cole, Mathieu the Flanimal and more recently, $amir Na$ri.

The Ugly

Oh my, these guys are the reason behind this post. I want to write about those specific Gunners that left the fans with fright any time they set their feet on the field of play. The Gunners that gave some of the fans nightmares at night as well as some moments of humor that ultimately led to something Arsenal had to pay for. I’ll also write about those Gunners that filled up the fans with high expectations before bringing them back down to Earth.

They include: