On the evidence of this table that I created! It shows rolling average five year net spend on transfer fees among the 'big six' (i.e. the 18/19 row shows that team's average net spend from 14-19).
It starts roughly from when Levy was appointed (December 2000), and the horizontal line represents roughly when the stadium build was announced (October 2008).
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I think it shows pretty clearly that prior to the announcement of the stadium our spend on transfers was competitive - more than Arsenal (presumably due in part to their own stadium build at the time), and comparable to Liverpool and Man Utd (despite them having much higher revenues than us at the time).
Then after the announcement of the stadium, you can clearly see our spending gradually decrease (and Arsenal's increase, after their own period of austerity).
And though it's not included in this table (because the
website that I use isn't up to date), this season - the first after which the stadium has been completed - we've spent £160m+ on Ndombele, Lo Celso, Sessegnon, Bergwijn and Clarke.
Interested to hear whether that has any impact on your views!