Wenger's crazy signings

Staying on the subject of Wellington Silva, Wenger has been taking a punt on random players ever since he first arrived. Here a few earlier efforts:

Alberto Mendez, signed from lower league football in Germany at 23 and later returned to it.

Stefan Malz, signed from complete obscurity at 27 and later returned to it.

A little bit less random because he’d had a few games at Monaco, Christopher Wreh was one of a number of players in world football trying to get deals based on the strength of being one of George Weah’s cousins (and note some of the extreme randomness later in his career like playing for Bishop’s Stortford in the lower reaches of English football, low enough down that it’s not even national competition at that level).

The really shocking aspect of these signings looking back on them is their ages, e.g. Alberto Mendez hadn’t made it past the 5th division of German football by 23, which is pretty solid evidence even at 23 that he wasn’t very good. If he was even very slightly ok then at 19 he’d have got a move to the 4th division and by 21 he’d have got a move to the 3rd division and by 23 should have been interesting 2nd division sides in Germany and that would be the trajectory for an obscure 2nd division footballer in Germany, not the trajectory for an Arsenal player.