Arsenal have made a few decent signings in the winter transfer window.

Our latest January signing, Mohamed Elneny, is performing really well, and it made me look back at other players that arrived during winter. Besides Elneny, we currently have three players that were signed in January, and they are mostly doing good.

Nacho Monreal is one of the players of the season, while Theo Walcott and Gabriel are struggling a bit, with one waiting for his chance from the bench and the other not performing as well as fans expect.

We sure had some “what ifs” that came in January. Jose Antonio Reyes was a talented player but he never adjusted to weather up here. Abou Diaby, once dubbed “next Vieira”, never got a chance to show how much talent he has, with all the injuries over his nine (yes, nine!) years at Arsenal.

Some of our January signings are still around in the Premier League. Emmanuel Adebayor, who was good at Arsenal and awful for Arsenal when in some other teams, is currently playing for Crystal Palace.

I “cheated” a bit with Toure, because he was signed in February. He is currently playing for Liverpool.

Emmanuel Eboue almost ended up in the Premier League as well, but his contract with Sunderland was broken before he even got to play, due to legal issues. Most Arsenal fans will remember him as the “class joker” rather than a good player. As for Arshavin, most will remember his four goals against Liverpool and how lazy he was most of the time.

I didn’t go further in the history than 96/97 and I have that season only because of Nicolas Anelka. He was one of the first signings Wenger made, a teenager from PSG who went on to have a decent career at quite a lot of clubs.

At the end, I wanted to mention two Arsenal legends who came back to the club in January after amazing careers here and at other clubs. We all know how Henry’s two-month long loan went, with that goal against Leeds in the cup. Sol Campbell was welcomed to the club during a difficult time for our defence, while Vermaelen and Gallas (whoa, that defense) were injured.

We did have some more signings, but these ones were the most important and notable. Make sure you click for full-size of the graphic for better viewing.

january signings