Arsenal fans are preparing for a trip to Wembley this weekend, as Arsene Wenger’s men prepare to take on Championship Reading for a place in the FA Cup final.
The Gunners are red hot favourites given they are the form team in the country at the moment, winning nine consecutive Premier League matches to climb to second in the table.
Their recent turnaround seems to have brought Arsene Wenger some more time at the Emirates, after he came under pressure earlier in the season for failure to guide his side towards a title challenge.
Arsenal fans will certainly demand one next season, with this season having proved far too comfortable at the top for Jose Mourinho and Chelsea.
The Gunners are set to enter the transfer market for further reinforcements this summer, and Wenger would do well to avoid signings similar to the five most pointless in the Gunners recent history, which we have identified here.
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Click on Arsene Wenger to reveal the 5 most pointless Arsenal transfers ever
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Pascal Cygan
Part of Arsenal’s Invincibles squad of 2003-04, Cygan must rank among the least deserving.
Signed as a promising defender in 2002, the bald Frenchman failed to shine in North London and was widely criticised by Gunners supporters for his lack of pace and actual ability, whilst the fact he was signed as a long term replacement for club legends the likes of Tony Adams and Martin Keown made it all the more difficult.
He actually made 98 appearances before he was sold to Villarreal in 2006 to the relief of Arsenal fans everywhere.
Sebastian Squillaci
Signed for £5 million from Sevilla, the centre back became the latest (and possibly the worst) Frenchman to be added to the ranks by Wenger.
He arrived at the same time as Laurent Koscielny, and was chucked into first team action straight away following an injury to Thomas Vermaelen – and straight away looked a long way out of his depth.
He left the club on a free transfer in the summer of 2013 at the age of 33, having played 23 league games in three years. Hard to be believe he managed over 20 caps for the French national team.
Mikael Silvestre
Yet another French defender that makes the cut!
The former Manchester United man was not only pointless but in his few appearances he was very poor.
He was five years past his sell by date, consistently made mistakes and was never going to be a long term feature of an Arsenal side that’s only ambition at the time seemed to be to make the top four.
Twenty one appearances and six defeats later and he was gone, making him one of the most pointless and forgettable Arsenal signings of all time.
Francis Jeffers
Arsenal paid £8 million for the striker. Nobody knew why but they did it, or indeed why Arsene Wenger seemed to rate him so highly – going on to claim his new ‘fox-in-the-box’ would be an England international for years to come.
It was a pointless signing as Jeffers was nowhere near good enough for the Gunners.
After three years and only thirteen starts he left the club, and has gone on to play for a host of sides since, including Newcastle Jets of Australia, and Accrington Stanley.
Who are they? Exactly.
Nicklas Bendtner
The photo says it all really.
To Arsene Wenger’s credit, he has signed some exceptional young players in his time at Arsenal, and moulded some into genuine world class stars.
Bendtner does not fall into that category – despite what he might think.
The Gunners were only able to finally flog him last summer, although not to Real Madrid or Barcelona funnily enough.
