Wenger: Arsenal's London Colney training HQ was envy of Europe | OneFootball

Arsene Wenger feels upgrading the training facilities set up Arsenal for a period of great success under him.

When Wenger joined Arsenal in 1996, he campaigned for the club to build a new training ground and their state-of-the-art London Colney base was eventually completed in 1999.

Prior to the opening of London Colney, Arsenal had been training at facilities rented from University College London.

Wenger explained that "the whole of Europe" came to see Arsenal's new facilities and then went away "built even bigger and better" versions for their own clubs.

He told BT Sport: "When I arrived I built a training ground. We bought the land… the whole of Europe… came to watch our training ground…

"Of course after people had been they built even bigger and better [training grounds]. And we build a stadium because it cost us over 400 million pounds and we had to pay it back.

"Despite that I think we remain 20 consecutive years in the top 4, in the Champions League, we finished 3 times 1st, 5 times 2nd, 6 times 3rd and 6 times 4th.

"After people get used to it and they want always more, which I accept, but I think as well people who have really worked in football know that the most difficult thing is consistency."