5 best and 5 worst signings in Premier League era

[Yankee_Gooner_Dandee]

worst: Denilson, followed by everyone else mentioned

[I Hate Hleb]

Best:

Bergkamp, Henry, Pires, Vieira and Overmars.

Worst:

Eboue, Denilson, Stephanovs, Almunia and Squillachi.

[MK Gould]

It's difficult to come up with the 5 worst signings as this implies wasted transfer fee, and unfulfilled expectations, but as we rarely spend much money then hard to get as excited over wasted wages or transfer fee of £5m or less.....

So whereas it should be (from a bygone age) people like Peter Marinello and Charlie Nicolas, I'd probably have to settle for:
- Francis Jeffers
- Sylvain Wiltord (barring one or two memorable moments....)
- Andre Arshavin
- Silvestre
- William Gallas.....

[M-50]

Best signings:

Thierry Henry
Dennis Bergkamp
Freddie Ljungberg
Cesc Fabregas
Robin van Persie

Worst signings:

Richard Wright
Francis Jeffers
Denilson
Igor Stephanos
Stephen Hughes

[Eboue-Why?]

It's difficult to come up with the 5 worst signings as this implies wasted transfer fee, and unfulfilled expectations, but as we rarely spend much money then hard to get as excited over wasted wages or transfer fee of £5m or less.....

So whereas it should be (from a bygone age) people like Peter Marinello and Charlie Nicolas, I'd probably have to settle for:
- Francis Jeffers
- Sylvain Wiltord (barring one or two memorable moments....)
- Andre Arshavin
- Silvestre
- William Gallas.....

Oi, you leave Charlie Charlie out of this. The winning goal he got against The Spuds in 1984 will live long in the memory

[paperclip]

It's difficult to come up with the 5 worst signings as this implies wasted transfer fee, and unfulfilled expectations, but as we rarely spend much money then hard to get as excited over wasted wages or transfer fee of £5m or less.....

So whereas it should be (from a bygone age) people like Peter Marinello and Charlie Nicolas, I'd probably have to settle for:
- Francis Jeffers
- Sylvain Wiltord (barring one or two memorable moments....)
- Andre Arshavin
- Silvestre
- William Gallas.....

This is a joke right?

[Barriecuda]

Been asked by the Liverpool Post to nominate Arsenal's best 5 signings during the Premier League period as well as the 5 worst signings. Off the top of my head, I have come up with the following list...

Thierry Henry
Dennis Bergkamp
Patrick Vieira
Robert Pires
Sol Campbell

Denilson
Manuel Almunia
Francis Jeffers
Mikael Silvestre
Glenn Helder

any names you think deserve to be there instead? i am thinking name signings rather than the likes of Amaury Bischoff who cost £500,000 or something - so people fans of other teams will have heard of.

I 100% agree with the signings gooner.ed,

Could add

Reyes
Arshavin

to worst, just simply for the money we wasted on them and all the fan-fare they came with. no one expected much from Helder and some of the others on your list. but we did from Reyes, AA23 and Jeffers

Arshavin? Far, far too harsh. Don't be so quick to write off one player because of some poor recent performances. Same goes with Almunia in my books - yeah he's not been a great player lately, but "worst ever signing" is too much.

Best (no order)
Henry, Bergkamp, Vieira, Pires, Campbell

honorable mention: Ljungberg, Kolo Toure

Worst (no order)
Jeffers - no explanation needed. Massive outlay, terrible performances.
Senderos - only 2.5m, but in 7 years he never made a proper name for himself
Gio Van Bronckhorst - huge cash outlay, but we never got any playtime out of him. 42 appearances and 2 goals in 2 seasons.

Maybe Reyes or Edu too, but don't know enough about them.

Don't know who else for the last two worst. Koscielny is springing to mind but it's too early to say definitively, however 10m spent on a much needed defender only to get a second tier player is a little tough to swallow.

[MK Gould]

It's difficult to come up with the 5 worst signings as this implies wasted transfer fee, and unfulfilled expectations, but as we rarely spend much money then hard to get as excited over wasted wages or transfer fee of £5m or less.....

So whereas it should be (from a bygone age) people like Peter Marinello and Charlie Nicolas, I'd probably have to settle for:
- Francis Jeffers
- Sylvain Wiltord (barring one or two memorable moments....)
- Andre Arshavin
- Silvestre
- William Gallas.....

Oi, you leave Charlie Charlie out of this. The winning goal he got against The Spuds in 1984 will live long in the memory

Don't get me wrong....I loved Charlie. Bit of glamour in a very bleak period. And add to his habit of scoring at WHL what about his (albeit deflected ) goals that won us the league cup against Liverpool.....

BUT, he didn't quite turn out to be the player he was trumped up to be when we bought him..... !

It's difficult to come up with the 5 worst signings as this implies wasted transfer fee, and unfulfilled expectations, but as we rarely spend much money then hard to get as excited over wasted wages or transfer fee of £5m or less.....

So whereas it should be (from a bygone age) people like Peter Marinello and Charlie Nicolas, I'd probably have to settle for:
- Francis Jeffers
- Sylvain Wiltord (barring one or two memorable moments....)
- Andre Arshavin
- Silvestre
- William Gallas.....

This is a joke right?

Which bit.....?

[MK Gould]

Arshavin? Far, far too harsh. Don't be so quick to write off one player because of some poor recent performances. Same goes with Almunia in my books - yeah he's not been a great player lately, but "worst ever signing" is too much.

For me, worst signing isn't the same as worst player. There has to be an element of unfulfilled expectation to really be on that list...

And with that in mind I think it's entirely fair to include Arshavin. Apart from one or two highlights (from last season not this) he has been a real disappointment. By "recent poor performances" do you mean the whole of 2010/11 season.... And with age being against him I sadly think that we've already seen the best of him.....

Also, I'd agree that Almunia shouldn't be on the list, but not for the reasons you quote. He is shite so deserves to be in any list of worst 5 players. But I don't think he was signed for big money or with high expectation so unfair to include him in a list of worst signings!

[Barriecuda]

Arshavin? Far, far too harsh. Don't be so quick to write off one player because of some poor recent performances. Same goes with Almunia in my books - yeah he's not been a great player lately, but "worst ever signing" is too much.

For me, worst signing isn't the same as worst player. There has to be an element of unfulfilled expectation to really be on that list...

And with that in mind I think it's entirely fair to include Arshavin. Apart from one or two highlights (from last season not this) he has been a real disappointment. By "recent poor performances" do you mean the whole of 2010/11 season.... And with age being against him I sadly think that we've already seen the best of him.....

Also, I'd agree that Almunia shouldn't be on the list, but not for the reasons you quote. He is shite so deserves to be in any list of worst 5 players. But I don't think he was signed for big money or with high expectation so unfair to include him in a list of worst signings!

Fair point. I'm hoping 10-11 is only a blip in his career, as he's only been here 2.5 seasons and his first 1.5 seasons were very good. He's never going to be bombing up and down the wings all game, it's just not his game; that being said, he did have more hustle later in the year and his goal against Barcelona in the first leg was worth 5m alone in my books. It's too early to write him off. He certainly has to be better next year, but the rest of the team does as well. I do not believe we've seen the end of the Owl yet.

[MK Gould]

Arshavin? Far, far too harsh. Don't be so quick to write off one player because of some poor recent performances. Same goes with Almunia in my books - yeah he's not been a great player lately, but "worst ever signing" is too much.

For me, worst signing isn't the same as worst player. There has to be an element of unfulfilled expectation to really be on that list...

And with that in mind I think it's entirely fair to include Arshavin. Apart from one or two highlights (from last season not this) he has been a real disappointment. By "recent poor performances" do you mean the whole of 2010/11 season.... And with age being against him I sadly think that we've already seen the best of him.....

Also, I'd agree that Almunia shouldn't be on the list, but not for the reasons you quote. He is shite so deserves to be in any list of worst 5 players. But I don't think he was signed for big money or with high expectation so unfair to include him in a list of worst signings!

Fair point. I'm hoping 10-11 is only a blip in his career, as he's only been here 2.5 seasons and his first 1.5 seasons were very good. He's never going to be bombing up and down the wings all game, it's just not his game; that being said, he did have more hustle later in the year and his goal against Barcelona in the first leg was worth 5m alone in my books. It's too early to write him off. He certainly has to be better next year, but the rest of the team does as well. I do not believe we've seen the end of the Owl yet.

Hope you're right, but I just look at him whenever a substitution is being made and he always look to be the player most desparate to come off. Just once in a while I'd like him to pretend that he is disappointed....

[SpanishJoe]

I'm surprised Overmars has only had one mention.

Top 5
DB10
TH
PV
Pires
Overmars (Cesc can't count because we baby-snatched him)

Bottom 5 (Agree that these should be measured against cost and expectation - not just because they're crap - though are that as well)
Jeffers
R Wright
Reyes
Cygan
Edu

[USMartin]

I think too many people seem to beieve that any signing who wasn't the best player of his era in his position is a bad signing.

I mean Sylvain Wiltord?

He was a terrific contributor from 2001-2004 really especially 2002 and 2003


His sole fialing really was that he wasn't better than Thierry Henry. He was versatile scored lots of big goals from out wide or up front, as a starter or as a reserve and he won the Fucking League at Old Trafford for us.


again

he won the Fucking League at Old Trafford for us

I'm sorry but how anyone can rate him a bad signing just flummoxes me.

[dudbux]

so many variables in deciding who is the worst and the best




Anelka has to be one of the best 500k into 20 million

[Peeman]

Reyes, Wiltord, Gallas - Very Very Harsh and as for Charlie