10 Things Arsenal Want You To Forget About Arsene Wenger

4. His Dubious Transfer Dealings

Stephen Pond/EMPICS SportStephen Pond/EMPICS SportLike so many Premier League managers, Arsene Wenger's career has been blighted by bizarre transfer dealings over the years. To be fair to Wenger, even the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson have been found guilty of getting it hideously wrong in the transfer market in the past, but some of the Frenchman's signings have been truly dire. Like Sebastien Squillaci. Pascal Cygan. Francis Jeffers. Park Chu-Young. The list is nearly endless. But perhaps his worst signing of the lot was Andrei Arshavin. Until the signing of Mesut Ozil last summer, Arshavin was the club's record transfer signing, but he completely failed to deliver on his potential, hitting a double-figure goal tally in the Premier League only once in his four seasons at the club. He was eventually loaned to Zenit and left on a free transfer last year, and it remains unclear what Wenger ever saw in him in the first place. So poor was Arshavin that when he arrived at the Emirates, he did so for an undisclosed fee. When it was reported that fee was £15 million, Arsenal refused to admit they paid that much for the Russian, and continue to do so.
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Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.