Arsenal gaffer Arsene Wenger has a well earned reputation for his astute and erudite dealings in the transfer market. The fiscally fettered Frenchman's finest finds frequently fulfil functions fabulously for fairly few funds. However no man is bullet-proof in any area and the Premiership's second most successful manager has his share of unsuccessful buys. Here we shall take a look at just three thrilling examples:
Igor Stepanovs
Signed for a cool one million of our pounds sterling from Skonta Riga the centre back nicknamed "The ogre from Ogre" (Ok I just made that up. But it should've been his nickname, right?) made less than 20 appearances in three seasons and was most famous for being utterly terrorised and looking completely terrified during the 6-1 defeat by Manchester United in February 2001.
Stepanovs, who has 99 caps for Latvia, was shipped off to KSK Beveren in 2003 and is currently without a club.
Kaba Diawara
During the Wenger years Arsenal have played host to many of the finest French players around. Sadly Kaba Diawara was not one of them. The pacy striker was acquired from Bordeaux for £2.5 Million (or seventy billion shillings and a ha' penny in old money) in January 1999 and sold to Marseilles (at a profit of £500,000 no less) less than six months later. The reason for his quick departure was his inability to convert any chances at all. Seriously talk about poor finishing, this guy couldn't finish his dinner. He failed to find the net for Arsenal in 15 appearances and later stretched out his dry spell into a full on drought by not scoring for a further two and a half years (which included loan spells at Blackburn and West Ham) before finally finding form again for Racing de Ferrol and Nice. He now plays for Alki Larnaca in Cyprus and represents Guinea internationally.
Alberto Mendez-Rodriguez
Five years. Eleven appearances. Two goals. Those are the statistics for half-German half-Spanish midfielder Alberto Mendez-Rodriguez. But it gets even more bizarre when you consider the story behind his move:
Arsène Wenger's talent for spotting talent has rightly attracted plenty of praise, but perhaps not enough. His £250,000 summer signing of Alberto Mendez from a German fifth division side revealed the far reaches of Wenger's scouting network. But that was only half the story.
The Arsenal manager signed the SC Feucht striker despite watching him only once, against the might of ESC Rangierbahnhof Nurnberg, and even though the player was suffering from the effects of alcohol at the time.
...
But Wenger had complete confidence in his powers of detection. "Alberto was terrible when I went to watch him," he agreed. "But I could still see he had potential. There is something very special about him." We wait to see what it is.
Sadly the answer was very little and, despite his two goals (one against Birmingham in the league cup, and one against Panathanaikos in the Champions League. Yes really.) Mendez spent most of his half decade spell away on loan to first AEK Athens, then Unterhaching and finally Racing Ferrol who he joined permanently once his loan period had concluded.
Currently he is back in the German Fifth Division plying his trade for the mighty SpVgg Weiden!
Despite these (and more) misguided signings Wenger's overall record in the transfer market is still untouchable. Certainly more so than his current North London rival.
