Between 1953-2006, Arsenal had only ever darkened Chelsea's transfer door on two occasions. However, since Roman rocked up in West London, we've acquired quite the taste for their, not so delicious, BIN juice.
Please help rate the most stomach churning servings in the handy little rating system Admins set up for this exact type of thing:
William Gallas (2006) Okay, so not exactly a ‘root through the bins’ signing to kick things off, but by the time he left it sure felt like he had been. In hindsight, there were so many things wrong with his signing right from the get go - arriving in a part exchange deal for arguably England’s best ever left-back, and promptly being handed Dennis Bergkamp’s no. 10 shirt - his time at the club was always likely to be doomed to failure. Being handed the captaincy the following season, instead of the more deserving Gilberto Silva, hardly helped improve matters. Gallas complained too often, sulked too often and, most damningly, went missing too often. Unless, of course, there was ever a centre circle that needed sitting in.
The only silver-lining came when he eventually left, joined Spurs, and was even worse for them.
Lassana Diarra (2007) Ahh Lassana. The first official Chelsea reject to sign for Arsenal. Heady days! Another bum that took a Legend’s shirt - this time, Freddie Ljungberg's. Fortunately he wasn’t around long enough for anyone to remember either that, or his actual signing - come on, be honest now… you’d forgotten he ever played for us too, right?
Sold to Portsmouth after half a season, and was never heard of again. Ever.
Petr Cech (2015) Oh how I loved Petr ‘big Pete’ Cech. Were I to name my All-time Chelsea XI, he’d be the first name on the list. Sadly, were I to do likewise with an All-time worst Arsenal XI, he’d probably be the 12th. Well past his prime when we signed him, bewilderingly, he replaced Wojciech Szczęsny as our no.1, with the Pole being sent out on a loan from which he has still yet to return. Watching Cech's sharp decline, pretty much week by week, was hard for everyone. Everyone apart from referees, that is, who soon stopped bothering to award penalties against us, opting to cut out the faff, point straight to the centre spot and award the opposition a goal instead. By the time they were doing the same for any back-passes to him, even Pete realised the gig was up.
Ended up ‘retiring’ in order to leave Arsenal. Named in Chelsea’s current Premier League squad.
David Luiz (2019) If Cech can be considered to be Arsenal first proper Chelsea bin-dive, Luiz is arguably still our deepest. ‘When he’s on it he’s really good!’ people tried to assure us. ‘What about the other 37 matches a season?’ we asked. Brought in to provide experience. He’s certainly provided us with plenty of those.
That he is probably the best signing we’ve made from The Blues since George Graham is telling.
Willian (2020) It's been a terrible year hasn't it, 2020? What with the protests in Hong Kong... the Australian bushfires... COVID-19... Arsenal signing 31 year old Willian on the three-year-facking-deal.
Hands up if you'd now have preferred us to sign Jorginho instead? Hey, Willian, not so quick there, pal!
Tune in next week for episode 2 in the series:
Manchester United’s BINS
Chelsea's BIN
posted on 10/11/20
Szczesny was a strange one. I wanted him sold after the Southampton debacle where I (and many others) felt he was a bang average goalkeeper.
See: https://www.ja606.co.uk/articles/viewArticle/296802
However, after his good two-year spell in Rome, I was open to bringing him back.
Then I realised that he wouldn't be the goalkeeper he is now had he come back to Arsenal. He (and Fabianski) said himself in an interview that the goalkeeping coaches at Arsenal were absolutely clueless. He wouldn't have progressed much here.
And after now being a serial winner with Juventus, playing consistent Champions League football, and effectively guaranteeing silverware every season, I highly doubt he regrets leaving.
posted on 10/11/20
I'm going to defend some of the decisions - can't believe I'm saying that.
Cech was a really good keeper. I wish we had sold Courtois earlier and kept Cech. Although he was past his best, there were very few keepers better and at the time Szczesney showed promise but didn't look like he's end up being the keeper he is now.
Luis, the fact that we managed to sell him twice baffles me almost as much as the fact that we bought him the second time. Undoubtedly a talented footballer but an awful defender.
The Gallas - Cole situation was a way both teams could save face. We know what Cole turned out to be, but being coached by Mourinho and having Terry next to him allowed him to shine. Gallas was a good player but far too up his own a$s.
Willian - on his day he's outstanding, few better than him. But apart from one season where he was fairly good throughout, he's far too inconsistent. But you got him for free.
posted on 10/11/20
But you got him for free.
———
And still got robbed.
posted on 10/11/20
comment by Donny The King van de Beek (U10026)
posted 6 seconds ago
But you got him for free.
———
And still got robbed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------- fair enough!
posted on 10/11/20
Cheers, Eric
Agree about Cech. I really did (secretly) love the guy when he was at Chelsea. Seems an ace bloke off the pitch too.
I think that's what made it even worse seeing his performances start at average, and get worse from there - remember, he was (as someone else pointed out earlier) meant 'to save us 12pts' a season, or whatever?
The Willian deal has gone from seemingly risky, if kind of understandable given our current financial situation, to utterly stupid in rapid time. That he's looked completely uninterested during the last two games hasn't helped.
Fack knows what he's gonna look like out on the wing for us in 2023
posted on 11/11/20
I enjoyed this article
posted on 11/11/20
It's incredible that we have already been suffering with this situation of a useless player on high wages and a long contract with Ozil for way too long now and we've gone and DuN iT AgAiN!!! V. KleVeR IsN'T WE?
posted on 11/11/20
Don't just make mistakes - compound them by repeating the same mistakes again and again!
posted on 11/11/20
I know, it's pretty worrying really.
Makes you start to wonder about whether we've got other recent deals wrong too...
posted on 11/11/20
I am happy with Gabriel, Partey, Tierney, Martinelli. I'm sure Saliba will be huge for us in the future and I have no worries that Aubameyang will start banging them in again providing Arteta manages to get us going soon attacking-wise. It genuinely wouldn't surprise me if he score two hat-tricks in successive PL games later in the season to make up for his missing goals so far. But again, only if we can find a way to start attacking with consistency and quality like we used to.
Hugely disappointed with Willian & Cedric, everything stinks about the WIllian one in particular but the latter doesn't smell of roses either.
Things will improve - because surely they have to, what other option is there? I don't think it's possible for the current group of players to do any worse than they are right now in terms of creating chances. Arteta may already be proving stubborn but he's no idiot, he will get us firing again.