Arsene Wenger is known in the transfer market to find the diamonds in the rough. Wenger has found and acquired players from the depths of obscurity and moulded them into footballers of the highest quality in recent years. However, Le Professeur, like everyone else, can’t always get it right and would have probably wished he never signed some of the players that have donned the Arsenal shirt in the past.
This article will list Wenger’s top 10 worst ever transfer signings since taking charge of the North London club 14 years ago.
So, here is that list in chronological order, starting from 1996…enjoy:
Luis Boa Morte
Boa Morte was one of Wenger’s first ever signings as Arsenal boss. The Portuguese attacking winger was brought to the club from Sporting CP for a fee of £1.75 million in 1996. The winger spent 3 years at Arsenal making a total of 37 appearances and scoring just the 4 times for the gunners.
He wasn’t a speedy winger, or a super-sub and was certainly not a good finisher…nothing special at all.
With every passing year, Boa Morte saw less and less of the football pitch, and was eventually flogged off to Southampton for a fee of £500,000…a total flop for Arsenal football club.
Christopher Wreh
Wenger knew of Wreh when he was manager of Monaco and brought the striker to Arsenal from the French side in 1997 for £300,000. Wreh was merely a back-up striker and was fourth in the pecking order behind Ian Wright, Dennis Bergkamp and Nicolas Anelka…So why Wenger drafted him in was beyond me. However, Wreh did manage to score some vital goals for the Gunners, but as the years went by, Wenger brought in a Frenchman by the name of Thierry Henry, which eventually saw Wreh leave Highbury in 2000.
The Liberian forward’s record for Arsenal stands at 46 appearances (mainly as a substitute) and netting just the 5 times in 3 years…Not a good record at all.
Oleg Luzhny
The Ukrainian was dubbed by many as ‘the horse’ and boy did he live up to that name. Wenger recruited Luzhny from Dynamo Kiev in 1999 for £1.8 million and was supposed to be a long-term replacement for the legendary Arsenal right-back Lee Dixon. Unfortunately, his lack of pace proved to be disastrous in the English game and was never comfortable playing for the gunners in his 4 year stay.
His willingness and desire was admirable, but it never hid the fact that he was just not an Arsenal player.
Continue to page 2 for the rest of the list
