He won seven league titles in Italy, flopped at Arsenal and is now a professional watchmaker

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Arsenal have had a number of players arrive at the club with a glamorous reputation and ultimately struggle to make an impact in North London in recent years.

The likes of Willian, Nicolas Pepe and Raheem Sterling are all examples of this, joining the Gunners with an impressive pedigree and ultimately going on to endure disappointing spells at the Emirates.

Sterling has frustrated fans with his performances this season, and is the latest in a long line of Arsenal acquisitions that were brought in to provide depth and experience, but were way past their best.

Unfortunately for Stephan Lichtsteiner, this is the category he’d fit into, producing a dreadful season in his short stint in N5.

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How did Stephan Lichtsteiner fare at Arsenal?

Winning seven Serie A titles and reaching the Champions League final twice at Juventus, Lichtsteiner was one of the most distinguished right-backs in world football when he arrived at Arsenal in 2018.

The then 34-year-old had been released by the Old Lady, and was looking for one final contract at a big club.

Arsenal and Unai Emery came in, signing the defender to a one-year deal as a back-up for Hector Bellerin.

The Gunners needed some cover for the marauding Spaniard and opted for an experienced option who would be dependable when coming into the side and would be a positive influence in the dressing room.

While it’s impossible to say whether he fulfilled the latter part of this job remit, he certainly didn’t deliver on the pitch.

After some dire outings in the first half of the season, it became clear that the veteran full-back couldn’t cope with the intensity of the English top flight, and he finished the season behind Bellerin, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Carl Jenkinson in the right-back pecking order.

Lichtsteiner has been named in Arsenal’s worst eleven of the 21st century, and that’s certainly a reasonable conclusion to take from his 23 appearances for the club.

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What has Stephan Lichtsteiner been doing since retiring?

Joining Bundesliga side Augsburg after his spell in Islington, Lichtsteiner spent a year in Germany before hanging up his boots in 2020.

Since then, the Swiss has taken an unconventional route in his career for a football, becoming a professional watchmaker.

Partaking in a six-month watchmaking internship in Zurich shortly after retiring, Lichtsteiner completed the apprenticeship and has been in the industry for a few years now.

Speaking on this bizarre career path to the Daily Mail back in 2021, the former right-back said: “I want to do something productive. If you are a banker… you can do that for all your life, but if you are a footballer once you hit your mid 30s, you have to find something else to do.

“I see some similarities to football. In football, if not all the team is perfect you will not win. It’s the same with a watch, if everything is not perfectly in place the watch is not going to work.”