My 5 Worst Arsenal Players Of All Time

As the transfer window deadline day approaches, there are many clubs still working hard to bring in those last minute signings. Naturally there will be panic buys; Park Chu-Young come to mind. It is easy to be frustrated by players not living up to their price tags but what about those that have come and gone? Those that may not have commanded huge transfer fees, and for good reason. They were complete and utter (enter expletive here).

Even Arsenal have got it wrong on a number of occasions. Think McGoldrick, Hillier, Caeser, Kiwomya, Helder, Luzhny, Cygan and more recently Chamakh. But there are worse.

• Kaba Diawara

The French-born Guinean scored only once during his time in England, despite claiming to be a striker. He had three spells in England and his only goal was in the league cup for Blackburn. Diawara joined in the summer of 2008 for £2.5 million and made 15 appearances for the club (mostly as a substitute), but never managed to find the net. The number of clubs he played for since reached double figures and yep you guessed it, he continued to struggle to find the net.

• Igor Stepanovs

Latvia’s most capped player arrived in 2000 from Skonto Riga after Tony Adams picked up an injury for a fee of £1.35 million. After a decent start (Stepanovs scored against Ipswich in the League Cup) things went from bad to worse. The ill-fated day was Sunday 25 February 2001. Arsenal were mauled 6-1 by Man Utd and Stepanovs had an absolute shocker. He went on to make only one more appearance that season and a total of 17 in three years. He would then leave for Beveren.

• Sebastien Squillaci

The six foot centre back joined in 2010 from Sevilla after impressive spells in Spain and France, where he was an integral part of Lyon’s championship winning side. However, the Frenchman has done anything but impress. He is slow, unresponsive and has a made a string of errors. The boss soon realised that Squillaci would not be up to the task and Per Mertesacker was brought in.

• Richard Wright

The Ipswich born shot-stopper was bought in 2001 as David Seaman’s long term successor. Huge gloves to fill and perhaps they are yet to be. Seaman picked up an injury and Wright got his chance. He failed to impress and soon lost out to Stuart Taylor, eventually moving on in the summer of 2002.

• Francis Jeffers

What a waste of time and money. Arsene has a record of dodgy signings when it comes to English players, and Jeffers has to by far be the worst. Bought in 2001 for £8 million from Everton, Jeffers never really go going at Arsenal, scoring four goals in 22 games for the club. Plagued by injury too, his time at the club would soon come to an end and he was eventually sold to Charlton.