Is it about the Glory or the Money?

Finally, Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal board have been placed with their backs to the wall.

For 9 barren years, they’ve always had the option to avoid the difficult question; they’ve hidden behind Szczesny’s mistake for the Birmingham cup final, Chelsea’s oil-backed roubles for the other one. They’ve hidden behind the financial recovery from their move to the Emirates Stadium. They hid behind injuries and the youth of their squad.

All mere excuses. The watershed moment for the club came last year – to the dismay of Arsenal fans the world over, they realized that they’d just seen their highly-paid and talented players celebrate finishing 4th like Chelsea, Manchester United and even Wigan (a championship club this season) celebrate winning titles. For the highest ticket prices in the league, watching your team crying about scraping into the big dog’s table must’ve stung.

But this season, with the glorious purchase of £42.5million Mësut Ozil, was supposed to be different (as “next season” always is). Finally, Wenger had stopped being as frugal as ever, and he’d decided that enough was enough. This season, they’d take the Premier League title – and they’d do it in that delectable and inimitable style of theirs. However, despite absolute chef d’ouevres like THAT goal against Norwich, Arsenal find themselves quivering as Everton’s ambitious manager Roberto Martinez guides them to the Champions League. For a club their size, an FA Cup Final against Hull City should be an exhibition match; instead, it will be a great chance for Hull to conquer their first major trophy.

Yet, a decisive day has come. Cameron Jerome – of Crystal Palace – may have just shaped Arsenal’s future by scoring the winner in their excellent victory at Goodison Park. By keeping Everton beneath Arsenal, they’ve placed Arsene Wenger (the “specialist in failure”) at a crossroads. Does he go for the FA Cup and allow the Champions League to slip into Everton’s hands? Or does he secure his “4th place trophy” and make it 10 trophy-less years?
One might think that the answer to that is obvious: go for glory. But we cannot deny that the economic perks of being a constant Champions League contestant are important. As Liverpool can attest, once you leave, you might be out of it for a very long time. You might not be able to sign top players. You’ll jeopardize your finances in a dire economic climate.

But then again, an FA Cup victory would finally bring the steel back into this Arsenal side. The last trophy they won was against Manchester United. It was an FA Cup. The magic of the FA Cup invigorates underachievers; it calls out to underdogs. Maybe the exertions of beating Hull City would keep them out of Europe, but maybe it’d bring them back to their rightful place as one of London’s top teams after the 6-0 wipe-out by Jose Mourinho’s tanker on Wenger’s 1,000th anniversary.

The day Wenger and the board feared the most is here.
The day when the question that’s been whispered across their barren seasons finally cries for an answer.

Arsenal Football Club, is it about the money or the glory?