5 of Barcelona's strangest signings ever

#2: Alexander Hleb

Alexander Hleb (left) was quickly deemed surplus to requirements at Barca

By the summer of 2008, Barcelona were certainly no strangers to signing players from Arsenal. Superstars Marc Overmars, Emmanuel Petit and Thierry Henry had all made the move from North London to the Nou Camp at various points in the 2000’s.

But, in 2008 the Catalan side decided to move for a much lesser Arsenal name – Belarusian midfielder Alexander Hleb.

While Hleb had made plenty of appearances for Arsenal during his three seasons there, and was a relatively popular man with the Gunners’ fans, quite why Barca wanted him was anyone’s guess.

He certainly wasn’t a key man for Arsenal during his stay as the likes of Robin Van Persie, Emmanuel Adebayor, Tomas Rosicky and Cesc Fabregas all tended to play more important roles.

At any rate, Hleb’s move to Barcelona was simply disastrous. He made just 19 starts in Barca’s treble-winning 2008/09 season and failed to score a single goal.

After this, he was quickly deemed surplus to requirements, as he embarked on a series of loan moves to Stuttgart, Birmingham City, and Wolfsburg before making a permanent move to Russian club Krylia Sovetov Samara when his Barca contract was cancelled.

Thankfully, the next player that Barca signed from Arsenal went down a little better. His name was Cesc Fabregas!