Wenger: "Walk away? No. Walk to where? I have won 600 out of 1000 games."

Graham had just the same problems in reality it was just at a lower level:

  • Series A was a financial powerhouse in the late 80s and early 90s

  • La Liga, Ligue 1, Bundesliga were all richer, stronger and more desirable leagues than the First Division or Premiership

  • Bayern/Real Madrid/Barcelona as huge as ever

  • Man United, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle Tottenham and Blackburn were all big spenders during that period and at the end Chelsea were also just starting their spending binge

  • Much lower revenue

In comparison Wenger had:

  • Massively weak Serie A, La Liga, Ligue 1, Bundesliga

  • Less competition in England initially, followed by concentrated wealth in two 'new' challengers later on

  • Bayern/Barcelona/Madrid as huge as ever

  • Some brief binge spending from Russia/France (that didn't really affect Wenger's plans at all)

  • Much higher revenue

How the hell was Graham supposed to compete with the English teams with much bigger stadiums? How was he supposed to compete with European clubs that were either as wealthy or more so in four leagues who all had access to European football (Liverpool got England banned)?

It's complete bullshit to exaggerate to such a stupid level. We were in a much weaker position financially then than we were in the past decade it's as simple as that.

In 2011 we signed Mikel Arteta for £10 million yet earlier in the window Arturo Vidal was sold to Juventus for just €10.5 million and Blaise Matuidi was sold to PSG for €7.5 million (+incentives). We could've had Xabi Alonso for about £16 million a few years earlier. You can do this for just about every position we were/are weak at.

Look at how much some of the top strikers were bought for just a year or two prior to their moves to the big financial powerhouses... Instead we got a Chamakh/Sanogo on a free, a pointless Park Chu Young or a Gervinho who has never looked special.

And let's not get into a debate about how 'nobody knew they would turn out that good' as if we went and signed proven players. We either signed nobody and let everybody play awkwardly out of position and get injured, kids who we overplayed to the point of stress injuries or bargain basement nobodies at the last minute that Wenger had no intention of ever playing anyway (Park Chu Young).

/r/Gunners Thread Link - telegraph.co.uk