When Wenger said that being in the top four and gaining Champions League qualification was like winning a trophy, many scoffed at him. It wasn’t shiny. You couldn’t put it in a cabinet. What the hell was he talking about?

It may not be a trophy, but to consistently qualify for the Champions league while spending little, and rebuilding the entire club including stadium is an exceptional achievement.

Liverpool have dropped out of the Champions League for one season. Their ridiculous spending levels have won them nothing and now they are in deep, deep shit. This year, it will take a miracle for them to qualify for Europe at all, let alone the Champions League. Their big stars will leave, no new ones will want to arrive, their revenue will drop, they won’t be able to afford the top players wages so will have to sign more mediocre players which will make their bid to get back in to the top four even more difficult.

It is a vicious circle.

For a few years now, Arsenal have been tipped as the club that would drop out and start the decent to mid-table obscurity. Wenger won’t get the plaudits for keeping this team competitive when it was filled with inexperienced kids and riddled with injuries to its senior players. Other clubs have shown they cannot cope with a fraction of the injury problems, or spending restrictions.

Not Arsene. Not Arsenal.

Chase the trophies at any cost and miss and Liverpool is what you get. Do it right as Wenger had, and you not only have a chance of winning trophies, but you’ll make sure the club only comes out stronger in the end.

What other club can say that? And it is that consistency that sees Wenger woted as the World’s Best Manager for the last decade.