Who is the player that promised so much but delivered so little and disappointed you the most? I was thinking about this recently and mine has to be Reyes. When we signed him it was special for a number of reasons. It wasn't just squad maintenance, it was a proactive step to improve the squad. He was generally regarded as the next big thing in Spain and was well thought of by coaches throughout Europe. His early performances were very promising too, remember the brace against Chelsea? But he never kicked on and delivered. I remember thinking that he would soon take the Premiership by storm but it slowly became apparent that he was never going to be an Arsenal legend. Thoughts?
Agree with Reyes - but another is Eduardo - started well but never recovered from that horrific injury.....shame.
I think the most recent one for me has to be Vela. He started off well and scored some screamers, but his career with us ended with a wimper. He had some serious talent but he didn't quite make it....
It has to be Peter Marinello.He was called the Scotish George Best when we signed him from Hibernian.I saw his debut at Old Trafford against Man Utd.He scored in a 2-1 defeat and basically that was his Arsenal career over.
The season he came in, he singlehandedly dragged us into the Champions league qualification. That alone paid for his fee. However, he was a disappointment in that I saw him as our chief playmaker once Fabregas left. For Russia he was great in the center and ran things. I could never understand why he couldn't do this for us and why he was always on the left wing.
Vela is banging them in for Sociedad this season. Rumour is he has a buyback clause in his contract. He has a shed load of assists too. 11 goals in 24 games so far this season, 12 in 35 last while on loan.
I hate these kind of threads. It is rather like the posts about how terrible our defense are. We only tink we have terrible signings because we never see how many failures other clubs have, or we judge these players by very high Arsenal standards. Sometimes like Vela or Eduardo they just don't fit into the team even though they are good players.
We never said they were terrible players. We are talking about them disappointing us after having high expectations of them. Vela for me was that. Very good ability but failed to adjust to the physicalities of the Premiership. As Bonstar pointed out, he is doing well in La liga.
I'm just saying why I don't often contribute to them. I do like using most disappointing rather than worst, but I still think that very often these players don't work out not because they were bad players or because Wenger or the club made a mistake, but more because they just didn't work out. In some cases they were long shots and it was our expectations that were faulty, not the clubs expectations. Squillacci, for example, was probably a desperate stop gap measure for a time when we were playing our 6th string CB. I doubt very much was expected of him by the club.
Arshavin without a doubt. This is a guy who had WORLD CLASS talent. But was lazy,lacked confidence and had a terrible attitude. I thought Wenger would have been able to get the best of him but no. The guy ran around the pitch like he didnt give a ****.
Sad isn't it. He has so much ability but spent his latter part of his Arsenal career, parked on a bench. But i'll still remember those goals against Liverpool. Magic.
Vela - 1 1/2 seasons at Real Sociedad 49 starts 23 goals and 12 assists. Have been saying it for a while he was/is a great player with potential just didn't fit our system tat and Wenger never really give him a chance. Was annoying seeing as players like Denilson, Diaby and many others were/are given chance after chance. He could deffo plaw a wf position or 2nd striker in 442
Reyes has to be the biggest one for me in recent times, I solely blame Manure for his failure to become an Arsenal legend, or at least fulfil his potential at the club. That game was one of the worst refereeing performances I have seen in my life, and the amount of kicks and niggles inflicted by the Neville Brothers and co. clearly had a significant impact on him, as he never really mentally recovered from it, got homesick, and went back to spain. Obviously he didn't have the mentality to succeed in England back then, but his talent was undoubted, and sometimes you do still wonder what could have been.
I wonder how many people would have said Theo Walcott if this thread was posted a couple of years ago ? 'No football brain' . .'no end product' . . 'Can't cross' . .'Runs into a wall' . . 'Can't finish' . . 'Only has pace'
In response to some above posts, this isn't meant to be a negative thread, just a comment on the experiences of being a gooner.
Gooners worst signings? From a spur point of view; Henry, Vierra, Fabregas, poxy campbell, seaman, pires, lundberg, Berkamp, ian wright....all bastards each and every one...at one point or another every one of them ripped my heart out and stamped on it
