I thought it would be interesting to have a look at Wengers obsession with buying players from the French leagues as Alan Davies was talking about it on the "The Tuesday Club" podcast, i did one of these a couple of years back at OnlineArsenal forum but cant seem to find it so ill do it again updated to 2012.
July 2013 - Yaya Sanogo (Auxerre) £450k
June 2012 - Olivier Giroud (Montpellier) £13.0m
August 2011 - Park Chu-Young (Monaco) £1.8m
July 2011 - Gervinho (Lille) £10.5m
July 2010 - Laurent Koscielny (Lorient) £8.5m
May 2010 - Marouane Chamakh (Bordeaux) Free
July 2008 - Samir Nasri (Marseille) £15.8m (Sold to Man City for £24.0m)
July 2008 - Francis Coquelin (Laval) £800k
July 2007 - Bacary Sagna (Auxerre) £6.5m
August 2006 - Alex Song (Bastia) £1.0m (Sold to Barcelona for £15.0m)
February 2006 - Carl Parisio (Cannes) Free (Sold to Cannes for Free)
January 2006 - Abou Diaby (Auxerre) £3.0m
January 2006 - Emmanuel Adebayor (Monaco) £7.0m (Sold to Man City for £25.0m)
July 2005 - Armand Traore (Monaco) Free (Sold to QPR for £1.0m)
July 2004 - Mathieu Flamini (Marseille) Free (Sold to AC Milan for Free)
August 2003 - Gael Clichy (Cannes) £250k (Sold to Man City for £7.0m)
January 2003 - Guillaume Warmuz (Lens) Free (Sold to Borussia Dortmund for Free)
July 2002 - Pascal Cygan (Lille) £2.1m (Sold to Villareal for £2.0m)
August 2000 - Sylvain Wiltord (Bordeaux) £13.0m (Sold to Lyon for Free)
August 2000 - Guy Demel (Nimes) Free (Sold to Borussia Dortmund for £194k)
July 2000 - Robert Pires (Marseille) £6.0m (Sold to Villareal for Free)
August 1999 - Jérémie Aliadière (Clairefontaine) (Sold to Middlesbrough for £2.0m)
January 1999 - Kaba Diawara (Bordeaux) £2.5m (Sold to Marseille for £3.0m)
November 1998 - William Huck (Monaco) Free (Sold to Bournemouth for £50k)
June 1998 - David Grondin (St-Etienne) £500k (Sold to Dunfirmlin for Free)
August 1997 - Christopher Wreh (Monaco) £300k (Sold to Al-Hilal for Free)
July 1997 - Guillaume Norbert (PSG) Free (Sold to Lorient for Free)
June 1997 - Emmanuel Petit (Monaco) £2.5m (Sold to Barcelona for £5.0m)
June 1997 - Gilles Grimandi (Monaco) £2.5m (Sold to Colorado Rapids for Free)
February 1997 - Nicolas Anelka (PSG) £500k (Sold to Real Madrid for £23.0m)
August 1996 - Remi Garde (Strasbourg) Free (Retired)*Arsenal signed Remi before Arsen arrived but he told them he wanted Remi there for when he got there
Total money smuggled into France in brown envelopes = £97,250,450
Players bought from France = 31
Monaco 7
Marseille 3
Bordeaux 3
Auxerre 3
PSG 2
Cannes 2
Lille 2
Lens 1
St-Etienne 1
Strasbourg 1
Bastia 1
Laval 1
Nimes 1
Lorient 1
Montpellier 1
Clairefontaine 1