Better season

[GP]

I believe the FA Cup is still a major honour but I wouldn't want it at the expense of a Champions League place.
CL gives us a much greater chance of attracting the calibre of players required to really push on.

Would Alexis or Ozil be here without CL football? It's unlikely.

[Letters]

ManYoo made some pretty big signings without CL football for a season.
A club's history and prestige (and manager, in our case, Ozil said it was Wenger who swayed him) make a difference.
It is very important but a season outside the top 4 wouldn't kill us.

But we did both anyway.

Wenger

[Power n Glory]

We've had clubs win domestic cups but end up relegated in the same season. It's no way to measure progress and I'd fear more for Wenger's job if he'd finish outside of the Top 4 but still won the FA Cup. In fact, I think we'd be waving goodbye to a few players if we lost our CL place.

[Power n Glory]

ManYoo made some pretty big signings without CL football for a season.
A club's history and prestige (and manager, in our case, Ozil said it was Wenger who swayed him) make a difference.
It is very important but a season outside the top 4 wouldn't kill us.

But we did both anyway.

Wenger

We don't have Man Utd's money to spend and our history isn't as rich. If we fall outside the Top 4, the narrative writes itself. 'The slow decline of Arsenal and Arsene Wenger'.

Liverpool are a better example and comparison.

[dostoy]

The CL places are more important than the FA cup for me.

This was a better season for 2 main reasons which were Alexis Sanchez and half a season of Francis Coquelin.

Next season better still all round hopefully.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

We've had clubs win domestic cups but end up relegated in the same season. It's no way to measure progress and I'd fear more for Wenger's job if he'd finish outside of the Top 4 but still won the FA Cup. In fact, I think we'd be waving goodbye to a few players if we lost our CL place.

Domestic cups are all about appeasing the fans, but I don't buy the notion that big clubs aren't interested in either. For me it's only the FA that have gone out of their way to devalue the competition by a mixture of holding the final at times when the league season is still going on and moving the kick off time
Wigan are the only team I can think of to win the FA cup and get relegated in the same season, we have Birmingham and the league cup final but that was a result of our bungling rather than lack of big team interest. And the minnows winning either cup competition is still an outlier rather than a trend.
Overall though yes I have to accept your premise that sucess In a cup competition is not an indicator of progress, especially as in the 2005/2006 we have gone further in the European cup than in the clubs history and despite this in the league we were as poor as I ever remember us being, especially away from home where we lost 9 times (the kind of away form we showed in GG's last season)

[Power n Glory]

Domestic cups are all about appeasing the fans, but I don't buy the notion that big clubs aren't interested in either. For me it's only the FA that have gone out of their way to devalue the competition by a mixture of holding the final at times when the league season is still going on and moving the kick off time
Wigan are the only team I can think of to win the FA cup and get relegated in the same season, we have Birmingham and the league cup final but that was a result of our bungling rather than lack of big team interest. And the minnows winning either cup competition is still an outlier rather than a trend.
Overall though yes I have to accept your premise that sucess In a cup competition is not an indicator of progress, especially as in the 2005/2006 we have gone further in the European cup than in the clubs history and despite this in the league we were as poor as I ever remember us being, especially away from home where we lost 9 times (the kind of away form we showed in GG's last season)

The FA have played their part in devaluing the competition but United had a season where they didn't take part in the FA Cup and we also played our part when we'd play our 2nd stringers. Wenger himself has said the Cup is low on his priority list so that's enough indication that we weren't interested in the competition. It's something for the fans and I'm glad we're taking it more seriously because it's good to win something at least. Almost a decade of winning nothing is an embarrassment and we should have broken that up with a few cup victories. But I'm not going to pretend it's a major cup and a sign that we're moving forward. It was always supposed be an achievement that would springboard us on to something bigger and break that losing mentality.

[Letters]

I don't really see winning the FA Cup as progress apart from the fact we finally managed to finish the job in a competition rather than falling short at the final hurdle.
But, as a fan, and surely as a player, it feels better to be lifting and parading a trophy than finishing top 4 and qualifying for the CL.

[Power n Glory]

For the fans, sure, plus our participation in the CL is pretty pointless, as we're just making up the numbers. Most of us have no faith in our manager or team to win it. But that's besides the point really. I think most would be happy even if we won the Carling Cup or UEFA cup. But we were questioning whether the FA Cup is a major trophy. It's not. The boss doesn't think it is and it's not enough to satisfy the players. Parade day they'll be happy but if they didn't have CL football next season, we'd find out how long that would last for.

[Letters]

But we were questioning whether the FA Cup is a major trophy. It's not.

Well, again, there is no objective definition of what is and isn't so it's a bit of a pointless debate.