Silverware The Only Measure of Success?

"Success is measured in trophies."

I read that statement (or something similar to it) almost everyday on blogs or forums. Usually it refers to how the last five or so years have been a failure. It is obvious that we haven't won anything since 2005, and that is not a good thing, but have the years since then have really been a huge failure?

I don't think so. The problem with equating success with the number of trophies is twofold.

First fold is this: Trophies by themselves don't mean much. Peter Hill-Wood said in an interview

a few weeks or months ago that if we had put more effort into trying to win the FA Cup and League Cup we would have, and I agree. Wenger said a year or two ago that winning the Carling Cup and finishing 11th would not be a successful season for Arsenal (that was after the Totts won the Carling Cup and finished 11th), and again, I agree. Success means more than just the trophy count, it means actually doing well the whole season, in competitions that really matter. I wouldn't like celebrating a domestic cup victory if we didn't do well in the league and didn't have the Champions League to look forward to the following season. I suppose it's nice to have trophies to parade around but my opinion is that they don't mean much if your team isn't really any good.

The league is the best indicator of how good your team is. And we've been consistently near or at the top end of the league in the past few years. And we have reached the final once and the semi final of the Champions League in that time as well. So no trophies, but we've done well.

The other fold is that the trophy winning club is very exclusive. The teams that win are most often the ones with the largest stadiums and the largest fan base and the most financial power. If success is only measured in trophies then 18 teams in the EPL last season were miserable failures. It's obvious that trophy count isn't the right criterion for success.

Success for a club is doing the best it can with the resources that it has. In that respect, we haven't done badly either. In fact, we've done very well. We are a club that should be challenging for trophies, but people have to understand that we haven't had the resources that Chelsea and United have had.

If you are one of those who think that success is only measured in trophies, then why you are an Arsenal fan is beyond me. We are not a club that has ever consistently won anything. Our record of winning silverware, or even being one of the best teams, is patchy at best. Arsene Wenger has probably changed that for good because now we are always consistently near the top, challenging for the title. And the teams that beat us are capable of spending far more than we are. That is changing now but that's how it has been for a long while. So you have to understand that while we're competing with these teams, and are supposed to beat them, we're working with a disadvantage right from the start.

So although it's not acceptable that we have nothing to show for our efforts over the past 5 years. Nothing to celebrate. It still doesn't mean we have been a failure. People need to look past the trophies and recognize the good work Arsene has done. The work that I hope he will continue doing for years to come.