He was supposed to be Arsenal’s ‘fox in the box’, but Francis Jeffers simply failed to live up to the hype surrounding his move to North London. Signed for £10 million, the striker is one of the Gunners’ most expensive acquisitions of all time and is still one of the most notoriously terrible decisions.
Jeffers’ move to Arsenal came about off the back of the promise he showed as a youngster for Everton, however, prior to the transfer, he had failed to score over seven goals in a season, a statistic Wenger should have perhaps been wary of.
Inevitably the somehow England international faired no better with Arsenal, scoring only eight goals during 39 appearances for the club, and after just two years at Highbury, he was loaned back to Everton after failing to impress.
Jeffers’ career has continued to disappoint: he is still yet to score double figures in a season, having most recently been with Accrington Stanley, and all this from a player who Arsenal spent £10 million on back when that was an eye-watering amount of money.
The signing was undoubtedly a strange one: Wenger had been criticised for not having a genuine poaching goal scorer, a ‘fox in the box’, and this is arguably why he signed Jeffers, but the Englishman just did not suit Arsenal’s style, which is perhaps why Wenger was reluctant to buy a striker of his ilk in the first place.