These days, the bottom line is cash, not domestic cups.
Most fans will not accept that. And they are right not to accept it.
After all, they still dream of a Wembley Cup Final. Of that feeling when the skipper lifts the trophy into the air.
But what could keep Christian Eriksen, Dele Alli, even Harry Kane at Tottenham will be Champions League football, not a Carabao Cup medal.
Of course, when Wenger, reacting to a seventh successive year without silverware at Arsenal in 2012, declared "The first trophy is to finish in the top four" he was mocked by many.
Including many Spurs fans.
Now it is Arsenal fans joining in the dismissive response to Pochettino’s reaction to his team’s FA Cup exit at Crystal Palace.
The Argentine said: "We are going to create a debate that to win a trophy is going to help the club.
"I don’t agree. That only builds your ego.
"The important thing is being consistently in the top four and playing in the Champions League."
Pochettino’s words should be wrong. After all, as Danny Blanchflower famously said, “The game is about glory."
But in that same quote, Blanchflower dismissed winning for winning’s sake as the right approach.
It was about HOW you played.
The Northern Irishman, the ultimate human embodiment of Bill Nicholson's footballing philosophy, was speaking almost 60 years ago.
When the European Cup was still owned, lock, stock and barrel, by Real Madrid.
When playing in that competition was an honour reserved for the domestic champions of every European country.
And when clubs effectively paid to play in that knock-out competition.
The past, unfortunately, is another country. Things were different there.
But Pochettino lives in the present, the here and now.
He knows that, if he is to be given the chance to spend big money, to buy the sort of players that will give him a better chance of winning the FA Cup or Carabao Cup in the future, and avoid losing his best ones in the meantime, he has to ensure Spurs are on the Uefa gravy train.
Yes, Pochettino did not WANT to lose to Palace. He wanted to win.
But he accepted losing. And did not believe it was worth risking damaging Spurs’ top four chances to stay in it.
Things might have been different if Kane, Dele or Heung-min Son had been available.
If Spurs had not played 16 games in the past 57 days. Or if they did not have to play another six before the end of February.
But the players were not available. The games had been played. And the others need to be played.
On Wednesday, Spurs play Watford at Wembley. On Saturday lunchtime, they play Newcastle, also at Wembley.
The following Saturday, home one more, against Leicester. And then, the fourth consecutive home match, against Dortmund.
All without Kane and Dele.
Win those three Premier League games, though – and resting Eriksen, Toby Alderweireld, Harry Winks and Danny Rose at Palace makes that more likely – and the nine points would be of far more value to Spurs than going through and then losing at City in the next round.
In cash terms, it really is a no-brainer.
The pot for winning the FA Cup is £6.6m. About the price of a left-back’s right arm.
In 2012-13, Arsenal bagged £26m for their involvement in the Champions League. That was the reality of the "fourth-placed trophy".
The Premier League earned them a further £57m.
But last season, Spurs took £53m from their Champions League run alone.
This season, with the new Uefa deal in place, that will be nearer £70m. That’s a top striker.
Or the extra money needed to give four players the deals that ensure they will stay.
If Spurs are in the top four, they will also take around £145m from the Prem.
But it is the place sitting on the High Table that means more.
If Spurs do finish in the top four, can ride out the period before Kane and Dele are back and firing on all cylinders, then, sadly, Pochettino’s sacrifice will be the right one, for the club at least.
It will not take the pressure off him next year – presuming he stays.
At some point, like Wenger did in 2014, he will need to win a trophy as well. He knows that, too.
Yet Pochettino believes that the belated move back to White Hart Lane will make that step easier, as long as he can keep his squad together.
And that the best way of keeping that squad together is to be offering them the prospect of meeting the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus and Dortmund again next season.
We may not like it. But that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Sadly.
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