Are you saying he was on drugs. Maybe all our players are, would explain stuff. Horse tranquillisers possibly.

More plausible that simply the premier league is a different kettle of fish to Russian football

Other bad signings Eboue and Denilsen. Both didn't financially didn't cost much but denilsen played about 100 times for arsenal and Eboue 132 so it took Wenger and awfully long time to realise those 2 players were not up to scratch to the detriment of our team.

Best signing must be Henry for me. Vieira, Pires, Petit, Anelka, Campbell all great, but Henry more than anyone gave us a chance to win against any team. Didn’t matter how good they were, with Henry on the pitch there was a chance he’d score a goal or two (or three) against anyone when he was on his game. Best player in the world for several years. He could’ve cost twice as much and I’d still see him as our best signing.

He was absolutely robbed of at least two Ballon d’Ors as well, just look at the top three from Henry’s best years:

2002: Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Oliver Kahn
2003: Nedved, Henry, Maldini
2004: Shevchenko, Deco, Ronaldinho
2005: Ronaldinho, Lampard, Gerrard
2006: Cannavaro, Buffon, Henry

The only one who come even close to Henry those years are Ronaldinho, with a nod to Kahn and Buffon as it’s hard to compare keepers and outfield players. Henry was the man.

They were poor in terms of what came before them but by today's team's standards they are probably no worse than what we currently have.

Its hard to comprehend looking back how he didn't get at least one. I suppose us being shite in the CL didn't help in terms of his european profile.

Best signing must be Henry for me. Vieira, Pires, Petit, Anelka, Campbell all great, but Henry more than anyone gave us a chance to win against any team. Didn’t matter how good they were, with Henry on the pitch there was a chance he’d score a goal or two (or three) against anyone when he was on his game. Best player in the world for several years. He could’ve cost twice as much and I’d still see him as our best signing.

Jeffers is the obvious worst signing for reasons outlined already. I would put Xhaka close to the top. He cost a lot of money and has delivered very little.

Although Arshavin's final season was abysmal, he doesn't really come into the reckoning for me because he was very good for his first year and a half....and that performance at Anfield...

Gervinho is right up there. He was highly rated and had tremendous dribbling ability but quite bizarrely for a professional footballer, he couldn't kick the ball properly. At least we got most of the money back, but he was bad.

Richard Wright was another huge disappointment. He looked like the perfect candidate to take over from Seaman but ended up being 3rd choice.

But for the fact that Liverpool paid us a fortune for him, I'd consider Oxlade Chamberlain a poor signing. We paid £12/15m for him when he hadn't kicked a ball in the PL. That was a lot of money for a totally unproven teenager.

Best signing must be Henry for me. Vieira, Pires, Petit, Anelka, Campbell all great, but Henry more than anyone gave us a chance to win against any team. Didn’t matter how good they were, with Henry on the pitch there was a chance he’d score a goal or two (or three) against anyone when he was on his game. Best player in the world for several years. He could’ve cost twice as much and I’d still see him as our best signing.

He was absolutely robbed of at least two Ballon d’Ors as well, just look at the top three from Henry’s best years:

2002: Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Oliver Kahn
2003: Nedved, Henry, Maldini
2004: Shevchenko, Deco, Ronaldinho
2005: Ronaldinho, Lampard, Gerrard
2006: Cannavaro, Buffon, Henry

The only one who come even close to Henry those years are Ronaldinho, with a nod to Kahn and Buffon as it’s hard to compare keepers and outfield players. Henry was the man.

and Gervinho had quite a good season in Italy after he left us. Frustrating player but not without some skill.

Ronaldinho did more than come close. He was the best player in the world for a while. Absolute genius. Ronaldo was better than Henry but not in 2002. Didn't he miss most of that season but was top-scorer in the World Cup?

Henry should definitely have got it in 2003 or 2004 though. He was the best at that stage.

Henry is a great shout and our best ever player but if you are looking at the business transaction and judging the manager on the ingenuity of it then Vieira and Anelka top it as far as giving props to the manager. Vieira was 3 million and playing in milans reserves and went on to be our greatest midfielder of all time and Anelka was a 500k buy as a 19 year old nobody had heard then sold to Madrid for 23 million with the entire fee building our new training ground and buying Henry. 2 incredible pieces of transfer business, Henry was an amazing buy but the other 2 our absolute testaments to Wengers acumen in recruitment (at that point in time)

Ljungberg also. Watched him vs England and signed him immediately for £3m. That was Wenger at his best too, taking an ingenious punt. The result, one of the best goalscoring widemen in the era with important goals and assists |(one in particular) that will live in the memory banks forever.

Overmars and Petit in '97 also have to be up there despite the fact their spells were relatively short.

On the subject of bad signings, rumours that Real Betis want to terminate the Joel Campbell loan and send him back to Arsenal. That's Sanchez replacement sorted.

He's better than Iwobi, I'd take him

http://news.arseblog.com/2018/01/wilshere-ill-be-back-in-a-couple-of-days/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

Are you saying he was on drugs.

I suspect he was on PEDs, yes. He admitted himself in an interview a couple of years back that "sport was impossible without doping". Didn't Wenger also say a few years back that when he signed certain players, blood levels were abnormal in a few of them?

I suspect he was on PEDs, yes. He admitted himself in an interview a couple of years back that "sport was impossible without doping". Didn't Wenger also say a few years back that when he signed certain players, blood levels were abnormal in a few of them?

They can't have been very effective, I watched him at Barnet and he came back from summer training vastly over weight.

Just read those comments he made which are bizarre and would indicate he may have however wasn't he the Russian captain ? It's par for the course he's going to say something pro Russia as Putin has a habit of putting bullets in heads of those who oppose the state.

Yeah but, I mean, this was far from stale and boring Arsenal:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPyludgy0_A[/youtube]

Not sure about these Malcom rumours.
Looks exciting but I think we should be looking at someone a bit more established.
Would love Draxler and Mahrez as replacements for Özil and Sanchez.
They would be my first choices and 2 deals seemingly easy to get over the line.
Havent mentioned Lemar because too many rumours he prefers Liverpool and 90 million is just ridiculous.
80 gets you Draxler AND Mahrez.

Not sure about these Malcom rumours.
Looks exciting but I think we should be looking at someone a bit more established.
Would love Draxler and Mahrez as replacements for Özil and Sanchez.
They would be my first choices and 2 deals seemingly easy to get over the line.
Havent mentioned Lemar because too many rumours he prefers Liverpool and 90 million is just ridiculous.
80 gets you Draxler AND Mahrez.

I remember Ronaldinho's peak at Barcelona as being longer. He was only there for five seasons, and the last one really wasn't that great. Him being compared to the all-time greats was done very prematurely it must be said considering how short his peak was compared to most of them. Henry as a comparison had seven straight seasons with 20+ goals, and five seasons scoring 30 or more.

I know some will disagree but Gilberto was an inspired signing on the back of a WC. No expensive either, was it £6m or something for a WC winner.

Exactly what we need right now in the middle of the park, a strong athlete with some defensive nous and a decent technique.

If Allerdyce is desperate for Theo we should squeeze the money from them. Everton have lots of money, time for us to be a bit more ruthless. £20m isn't enough. Liverpool want £30m for Sturridge