I reckon we beat better teams in a few FA Cup wins than we did in the CWC
And no team is winning the Champions League with zero net spend for over a decade. The way he performed with how we’re performing now probably indicates he overperformed with the players he had at his disposal.
Not for me. Tottenham got to a CL final spending next to nothing.
We should of been well capable of getting past round 1 at least a couple of times.
No it’s too simple an excuse and convenient for his tactical failings that occurred in his Emirates era mostly.
You get exposed on that stage if you don’t get to grips with top coaches and players.
Lmaoooo THIS IS THE EUROPEAN TROPHY YOU ALL BIG UP THE MAN OVER LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOO 
bruh…I’m
And this fucking cunt stole money from the club??
Chapman >>>>>>
During our peak years we got stopped by Ajax, Valencia, Deportivo and Chelsea under Ranieri…
Or we overrate what Arsenal should have done in the Champions League those years and we simply weren’t that good. But I don’t think anybody believes that.
FFS
I’ve seen it said online years ago that after getting such a great youth group Graham cut off funding to youth development - anyone know about this @Stroller @Ashgooner1 @DavidHillier @InvincibleDB10
United and Liverpool mainly. Spurs broke the British transfer record for Gazza, bringing Linekar back from Barce. Everton were spending quite big for the time period too. Those teams were all spending millions years before Graham did
Aside from Smith, Bould, Winterburn and Dixon most of our players came through the youth ranks.
Valencia and Deportivo were both elite back then and winning titles when Real and Barce weren’t. Valencia made 2 CL finals too. Chelsea under Raneiri were an incredibly expensive team.
I honestly think our midfield lacked some refinement in Europe. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we finally got to a CL final when we had Fabregas.
My point was that when Graham took over he turned us from a team full of old established players to a young team, spending very little money and won the league title.
The team was full of young home grown players, with some cheap signings as well.
We were one of the last sides in the league to spend a million on a player and when we eventually did spend 1m we bought Seaman and paid for most of the fee by selling Lukic.
Clubs like Man U, Liverpool, Everton, spurs, etc, would buy players that were already top level but most of our signings with Graham were either young or cheap.
I can only think of Seaman, who was at QPR and Wright, who was at Crystal Palace, as big transfers and even they were not considered massive at the time, it’s only since they became top quality that we think of them as big signings.
Most players that he bought in were quite average and certainly not elite players.
We had loads of very underwhelming windows with players like Winterburn, Bould, Lukic, Groves, Allinson, Marwood, Limpar, Richardson, Pates, McGoldrick, Hayes, who were all cheap.
But along with those signings were the youth players like Merson, Adams, Rocastle, Thomas, Davis, Keown, etc.
We might have spent a bit on Seaman and Wright but that was very unusual and as I said, Seaman was bought from mostly the money we got from Lukic and Wright was a straight replacement for Smith, who had injury problems.
I think to win what he did, without much spending, and leaving Wenger with a top defence, as well as Wright and Parlour, was a great achievement.
This is not aimed at you but It annoys me when people say that we were nothing before Wenger and Graham wasn’t a great manager because it simply isn’t true.
Alan Smith was a big signing but agree.
Which I said was just facts, Graham being very good/great, but I don’t believe that Arsenal was poor back then too narrative. Like I said before. People make it seem like Arsenal was always so very poor.
I doubt Graham ever had that sort of decision making power.
Lol
Why did he lose his mojo, in league at least, in his later years? Why did he move away from what made him hugely successful in the early years (i.e utilising the youth setup)?
Probably on the quality. It was a pretty good batch when he arrived. Not a class of 92 but very good really.
You say that but he finished 4th in his last full season and we looked the most probable team to oust Man United at one point
Fair point mate 
Any Graham books you’d recommend?
I haven’t read any
Football books are a little off putting. I read Vieira’s biography and that put me off for life.
I’d read them if there was something interesting (e.g. Jimmy Greaves or Bobby Charlton) in their lives but as I say, I’ve kinda been put off.
It’s quite ironic because I used to read a lot of football novels when I was little. Books by Michael Hardcastle.
The account ones 
Simply just bottlers in Europe and should have done so much better.
Take that Chelsea side that knocked us out for eg, we’d already beaten them twice in the league that season and knocked them out of the FA cup.
