TRANSFER MISTAKES THAT SET THE GUNNERS BACK A FEW YEARS.
We are a club that has come a long way, from the latter stages of Wenger’s reign through to the early stages of Mikel’s tenure, we were a club in complete disarray, characterized by terrible transfer decisions and policies which translated into further decline in performance levels on the pitch.
The combination of those factors made it a painstakingly long road to recovery, it was during this period that we broke unwanted records for the ages. One of the key reasons responsible for this was the number of bad transfers we made during that period, so follow me as I go through three of the worst transfer decisions, we made during that.
1. Willian: Eyebrows were raised when Arsenal decided to snap up the Brazilian winger on a free in the summer of 2020, he had a pretty decent season with Chelsea prior to the move, contributing 20 G/A (11 goals & 9 assists) in all competitions however the prospect of moving to North London was met with skepticism. The skeptics were seemingly proven wrong on his debut however due to his man of the match display against present club Fulham. Nevertheless, the fears were proven right eventually when he went on to have one of the poorest seasons of his career, the only blame I had on Arteta was the persistence of playing him when he was desperately out of form and needing confidence.
2. Sokratis: One of the very first signings of the post Wenger era, the Greek Central defender represented one of our biggest transfer mistakes during that phase, His profile was a total mismatch to how we were trying to play. lacking the pace & mobility to cover spaces in behind along with not being technical enough to build from the back, were just a few reasons why this was one of the worst transfers the club made during that period, Couple that with the partnership he had with Mustafi for the most part, then there’s no wonder why we were in disarray.
3. Nicolas Pepe: A player of great potential and quality, you just have to accept that it wasn’t meant to be, he was a player I really liked and supported even when he was not in the richest vein of form but however, we just had to move on. He just couldn’t adjust to the huge demands of premier league football also the price tag was just too big for him to handle; it weighed him down like a shackle and this led to inconsistencies throughout his Arsenal career.
Is there anyone else you would include in this list?
KENNETH BENJAMIN
ADMIN COMMENT
So here are some simple rules which I must insist commenters follow….
You agree not to give any personal abuse to other Arsenal fans. Everyone is allowed to hold their own opinions even if you disagree with them. It COSTS NOTHING TO BE POLITE TO OTHER ARSENAL FANS.
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
Willian was the least bad of the three. It didn’t work out for him and Arteta and thankfully Willian wanted to play – but elsewhere. An agreement was reached quickly.
Recruitment was shaky. Mari and Cedric on short term loans which turned into long contracts courtesy of Sanhelli’s position and contacts with particular agents. That really annoyed me. Neither were any use nor ornament after the loan spell. Mari had the decency to move on but Cedric chose to sit on the bench
William was a free transfer and although he was on huge wages he agreed to cut his contract short. He deserves respect for that, most other players would have sat on it or demanded a pay off.
Please be advised that there were more than 1 billion reports that Arsenal and Willian agreed to a £15m pay off. That was the beginning of our paying off players. Do you really think a South American would give up such money just because he wanted to play knowing the state of things back home? It’s highly unlikely bro
According to Skysports:
Wednesday 01 September 2021
Willian has walked away from £20.5m and terminated his Arsenal contract in order to secure a move to Brazilian side Corinthians.
Willian had two years left on his £240,000-a-week Arsenal contract but instead of staying at the Emirates or asking for a pay-off, he has decided to tear up his contract.
“Following positive and constructive recent discussions with him and his team, he will be leaving for a new opportunity with Corinthians in Brazil, where he began his career,” the club said in a statement.
“Everyone at Arsenal wishes Willian and his family well for the future.”
Not only is the 33-year-old saving Arsenal £20.5m, he is also set to take a 70 per cent pay cut to return to his former club.
Arsenal directors are said to be amazed by Willian’s gesture.
Willian has been an exemplary professional since he moved to the Premier League eight years ago and he wants to leave English football with his head held high.
Nobody comes close to Pepe who was a huge waste of money but even he had his moments. He was excellent in the FA cup run, especially the semi and the final.
Couldn’t argue with all three picks. Hard to defend. I think we’ll be adding Viera to the list by season’s end.
Kim Kallstrom, Silvestre,Cech
Cech?! Why???
Don’t think Sokratis was that bad…did ok when played in a 3 alongside Monreal and Koscielny. Mustafi was awful after his first 10 games. Another player who stank the place out was Kolosinac who did ok at first, got injured, put on weight and started to hang out with Ozil and then did nothing in 3 years. Annoying to see him do well with Atalanta and win the Europa League last season when his attitude sucked at Arsenal.
Hardly a dying embers signing by AW in the case of Silvestre
The article mentions the later stages of Wenger through to the early stages of Arteta. In the article, 2 of the 3 were probably foisted upon Emery and Willian didn’t work out for Arteta
From the point of view of fairness, I didn’t rate Mustafi but he was among a small group that were signed later on that didn’t set the world on fire. PEA was his last signing who did.
Only for a relatively brief time and only when compared to what had become our normal high standards as a club.
If we are saying recent …
Lokonga , Tavares , Vieria
Basically half of Arteta signings…
Anyone remember Cedric Soares?
Marquinhos?
Even Zinchenko and Jesus haven’t quite worked out
Vieira hasn’t failed yet. He might turn into a decent backup for Saka and Odegaard this season
It depends on what the criteria are for the choice. If it’s purely financial then Pepe “wins”, doesn’t he?
Apart from his £72m fee, there’s also the matter of the £34m in wages (which he was paid even though he wasn’t at Arsenal for a lot of his time). That’s over £100m and he left on a free transfer! His total of 112 appearances for us producing 27 goals and 21 assists hardly justifies the overall outlay.
It’s thought that then head coach Unai Emery wanted to sign Wilfried Zaha instead but was overruled. One of the great Arsenal “What Ifs”.
NICOLAS PEPE:
Cost: £72m
Time: 3 seasons
Matches: 112
Goals: 27
Assists: 21
FABIO VIEIRA;
Cost: £35m
Time: 2 seasons
Matches: 49
Goals: 3
Assists: 4
I wonder whose name should have been on the list in the article.
Gallas – awful attitude and past his best
Sylvestre – was never any good and got worse with us
Cech – way past his best, almost like he was sent as an agent to cause chaos behind an already shaky defence
All 3 were cast-offs from disliked PL clubs and should never have been considered by Arsenal.
Willian did well at Chelsea and Fulham and the fact that he did not perform with Arsenal raises another issue which may suggest a weakness in our Management team at the time.As for our worst signing, Mustafi must be in the running for that accolade.I happened to be on holiday in Valencia just after he signed for Arsenal and virtually all our hotel waiters could not believe we paid 35m for such a “plonker” in their words. I think his signing made me finally realise that it was time for AW to depart.
But with Willian, like any other player, this can happen, may be the vibes at Arsenal at that time were not conducive to him. Willian came to Arsenal at a time of uncertainty, rebuild and mess.
Bergkamp and Henry weren’t doing that great at their previous clubs but then moved to Arsenal and the rest is history.
Lukaku and Pogba were doing great in Italy but the moment they came back to the EPL they flopped..
Odegaard was not doing that great at Madrid but he moves to Arsenal and look at him nowadays.
So many instances of this kind of thing happening with different players. Havertz also being one..
Not recent times but a few oldies on here might remember these, John Hawley and Ray Hankin back in the late 70’s or early 80’s we’re pretty bad signings.
And what about George Graham’s last signing before he was asked to leave the marble halls: Glen Helder. I recall reading that there were stories about “unsavoury” people involved around that rather odd transfer (and I don’t mean his agent).
Going back a bit further, Pat Howard, a CB Terry Neill signed from Newcastle. He didn’t last long.
I don’t think we are ever going to make a worse signing than Sylvester.
In Arteta’s time around 55% of his signings have been bad.
No one mentions Chamak and Sanogo? 🙂
They were free transfers
Harmless
Fabio Vieira has one more season to show up or be will be the worst Arteta / Edu signing.
The defender we bought from juventus( leicthener) I don’t think I got spelling right.
He should top the list
The Klingon (Gervinho), Santos, Mustafi…
No mention of Sebastien Squillaci here?
The Squid! I was scrolling down the comments waiting for his name to be mentioned.
How he got 21 caps for France evades me.
What about exit transfers?
Van persie left at his peak and won trophies elsewhere.
We actually paid Özil to leave when he was in his prime.
Alex’s Sanchez was far too good to be let go.
Ramsey should have been captain, never allowed to go on a free
Pepe….
Did Balogun ever play for the first team? Now we are screaming for a new striker?
Now we have lost another wonderkid to manure cheaply.