Wenger’s Policy of Gambling on the Anonymous Players

Wenger’s Policy of Gambling on the Anonymous Players

Arsene Wenger’s time at Arsenal has been marked by several important trademark policies. The French expert has followed his football philosophy to the letter when times were good and bad alike and while it has worked like a charm on some occasions, it proved as a flop on others.

Wenger is very adamant about the club not spending too much money to bring in huge signings, relying on youngsters from the youth academy and promising but unproven players from other clubs to save the day by joining the first team and becoming superstars.


Of course, examples such as Cesc Fabregas and Thierry Henry have proved that Wenger’s policy often works, but on more occasions the young players Arsene put his trust in proved to be less talented than he believed them to be. These are some of the biggest flops that Arsene Wenger gambled on during his Arsenal career and reasons they didn’t pay off.

Mark Randall

Despite Wenger’s claims that Randall was simply too good not to make it in Premier League football, the English national simply didn’t seem to have what it takes. Mark arrived to Arsenal as a young boy and Wenger was constantly trying to push him into the team between 2006 and 2011. Nevertheless, Wenger did realize the kid was not yet ready and sent him out on several loan deals to lower league clubs.

Randall finally left Arsenal in 2011 to play for Chesterfield and he never came back to the top level. Currently 27, Randall plays for Newport County and is not very likely to see the top flight of English football again in his career. Whether Wenger was right or not, we will never know, but the player insists that his progress was hindered by being sent away on too many loans.

Andrey Arshavin

Back in 2008, Arsenal had just moved to the Emirates and Russia’s Andrey Arshavin was all the rage after his amazing performance at the 2008 World Cup. Arshavin was signed by Wenger from Zenit Saint Petersburg for a huge undisclosed fee and the fans were ecstatic, as the Russian was supposed to become a major international football star.

Arshavin was not exactly a youngster at the time of arrival, but he had not yet confirmed his quality by playing in any major European leagues either. Over the several next seasons, the Russian made 105 appearances for Arsenal and scored a modest 23 goals, significantly less than anyone would have expected from such a prodigy.

Arshavin actually made quite an impact upon his arrival, even scoring four away goals at Anfield. However, as time passed, his performances became bleaker and by 2013 when he left the club, he was making nearly no impact on Arsenal’s performances.

Once again, Wenger had put too much hope into a rising star who was not confirmed to be able to play at the top level and the results were less than impressive.

Andre Santos

Back in 2011, Arsenal were in a disastrous position defensively and following several horrible defeats, including the 8 – 2 trashing at the hands of Manchester United, Wenger went on a shopping spree. Once again, he prompted to bring some players who were not proven at the top level and once again, disaster happened.

Andre Santos was a promising back from Brazil who was already playing for the national team and at the time was playing in Turkey. Wenger brought him in to try and patch up the defensive situation, along with Per Mertesacker and Mikel Arteta.

While the fans expected a dynamic back who would run forward and help organize attacks, then run back and protect his own goal, they got something completely different. The player seemed to be running at half the pace he was showing for the national team and just generally seemed disinterested with his performances.

Eventually, Santos left Arsenal in 2013 after 25 performances, most of which were extremely sub-par compared to other Premier League defenders.

Is Wenger a Gambler or a Businessman?

For many fans, Arsene Wenger is simply a gambler who invests too much time into developing unknown players and risks too much. For others, he is a shrewd businessman who knows how to make great players and sell them for millions on a later date, while constantly maintaining Arsenal near the top of English and European football.