Former Arsenal player, Kolo Toure, has revealed why he believes Arsenal haven’t won the league since our historical Invincible season.

The Liverpool man is convinced that it was our move to the Emirates that ultimately hindered our progress and meant we’ve failed to win the league since 2003/04. The thing is, he’s right.

“Everything changed,” Kolo said.

“They needed to sell some players, cut the wage bill and that is all about it.”

When Arsenal moved to the Emirates, as Kolo pointed out, a lot of things had to change. We couldn’t afford to keep hold of our most valuable players and we needed the money other clubs were willing to offer. Wages were cut and so were the funds available for buying more talent.

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MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – APRIL 29: Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United tussles for posession with Kolo Toure of Arsenal during the UEFA Champions League Semi Final First Leg match between Manchester United and Arsenal at Old Trafford on April 29, 2009 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

Paying off our stadium meant we had to deal with 10 years of seeing our star players leave, sometimes to our rivals, and men of a much lower quality come in. Despite this, Wenger managed to keep us in the top four every single season.

“Wenger is a top manager, he has shown that unbelievably,” Kolo continued.

“The thing I like is this manager can make an average player one of the best players in the world. He did that with so many players. George Weah, Patrick Viera was in Milan not playing a lot, Thierry Henry was at Juventus and he brought him here and made him one of the best players in the world.

“He did that with so many players, he made a lot of players into top players. He is a fantastic manager. He did that with me because I started from nowhere. He took me to the next level and I always respect him for that.”

Now obviously things are changing. We have no debts, have the money available to buy top quality players and also have the incentive to keep hold of our stars.

It’s also obvious that Kolo still has a huge amount of respect for the club and manager, and that the comments he’s made are in no way malicious. He’s just pointing out what most of us already know.