Arsenal’s five worse British flops
As we all know, transfers in football do not always go as planned. Investing time and money in a player can sometimes pay large dividends and work magic, but then there are times when things don’t go as smoothly. Arsenal is no different, with the club having its fair share of both good and bad signings.
In regards to English players, Arsenal has not always been blessed with such homegrown talent. While the current squad is full of English star power with the likes of Theo Walcott, Danny Welbeck, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs, and Calum Chambers (to name the main stars) strutting their stuff, past Arsenal sides have had no such luck.
While there are plenty of English flops to name, I have managed to cut the list down to just five (at least I’ve attempted to do so). We at Arsenal-Mania decided you might enjoy a little detour from today’s big match. Have a look at Arsenal five worst English flops.
Having joined the Arsenal youth academy aged 13, Bentley was supposed to be England’s next big thing. He wasn’t. In his four year stay at the club, he managed just one league appearance on May 4, 2004 against Portsmouth. While he did manage to score a goal for Arsenal in a F.A Cup match against Middlesbrough in January of 2004, his Arsenal career was on a whole uneventful, leading to two loan spells away from the club and an eventual request to leave.
Wright was another tipped for a big future. He was signed as a 23 year-old to provide competition for places and ultimately replace the aging David Seaman between the sticks. Instead he found himself third choice behind Stuart Taylor and made just 22 appearances for Arsenal in total before moving on to Everton.
Jeffers was brought in to be Arsenal’s “fox on the box” according to Arsene Wenger. Those words will forever go down infamy in regards to Jeffers now, as he turned out to be anything but that. Signed from Everton in 2001 for a hefty £8million (very expensive at the time), he failed to even slightly live up to his billing, mustering just 22 league appearances and 4 goals. Wenger said Jeffers was “obsessed with scoring goals,” when he first brought him in, he couldn’t have been more wrong.
Pennant was a bit of a child star, signing for Arsenal in 1999 aged 15, with a quite a promising billing. He made his first team debut aged 16 years and 319 days against Middlesbrough in the League Cup on 30 November 1999, Arsenal’s youngest ever at the time (since broken by Fabregas and Wilshere), and continued to make League Cup appearances over the next few seasons. He had to wait over two years to receive his league debut, coming on as a sub against West Ham in August of 2002. After 7 years at the club, he managed just three starts and three goals, all of which came against Southampton in May 2003. Pennant had a poor disciplinary record as well, often late for training, which contributed to his exit in 2005.
Justin Hoyte, along with younger brother Gavin, joined Arsenal as youth players expected to blossom into fine defenders. Hoyte was mostly a right back, but was used everywhere in defense to provide cover. He was given a run in the team to cover the injured Clichy and Eboue but never really broke into the side fully and was moved on after six seasons with the club, most of which was spent playing cup matches.