OPINION: Sorry Pochettino, the biggest clubs win cups AND get in the top four

Chas Hodges and Dave Peacock wrote a lot of songs better than their offering for Tottenham's last appearance in an FA Cup final.

They reused the old tune from London Girls, a song released to limited success in 1983, and simply changed the lyrics to celebrate a coincidental strand running through a lot of the club's achievements. It peaked at No 44 in the charts.

(It's Lucky For Spurs) When The Year Ends In One mapped Tottenham's successes through the century, and the fact that the decades had a habit of beginning with a trophy for the club. Their prediction proved right: Tottenham won the FA Cup that year, too — 1991.

It is worth remembering this when considering the club Tottenham are now, and the club they were then. Tottenham were always a big club, because Tottenham won trophies.

That's what big clubs do. They don't just play in the Champions League each season. They win the big matches, they win the big prizes.

Start with the ones Chas and Dave celebrated: FA Cup (1901), FA Cup (1921), League title (1951), League and FA Cup double (1961), League Cup (1971), FA Cup (1981). Then consider the others that don't fit neatly into numerical repetition or a catchy pub rock chorus: FA Cup in 1962, 1967 and 1982; League Cup in 1973 (and later in 1999 and 2008); European Cup-winners' Cup in 1963; UEFA Cup in 1972 and 1984.

Cups are only good for the ego, Mauricio Pochettino says, but that is not the limit of their influence. The reason Tottenham can build, and fill, a 60,000-capacity stadium, the reason they can attract 80,000 to major matches at Wembley, is because they have the fan base of a big club — and they grew that by winning trophies.

Yes, we know, fourth is a trophy these days, too. Can't display it in a cabinet, or parade it on an open-top bus, but it is there on the balance sheet and in the fixture schedule for the new season.

Pochettino is right. Had he won the League Cup and finished consistently mid-table, he would have been sacked. Establishing Tottenham in the Champions League will feel to him as huge as any trophy.

It means Tottenham return to White Hart Lane as a different entity. A big club, yes, but big on numbers, big on paper, not big in the way of a club that wins trophies. Not big like Manchester United, even when they sit outside the top four.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had it right, again, when asked the extent of his ambition at Manchester United. 'We are looking to win trophies,' he said. 'Top four will never be the dream for Manchester United.'

Of course, that's easy for him to say. At Arsenal on Friday, Solskjaer had the luxury of leaving Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial to rest on the substitutes' bench, and starting Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez.

Pochettino by contrast has Harry Kane and Dele Alli out injured, and Son Heung-min returning from international tournament duty with South Korea. Tottenham's resources do not compare to those of Manchester United.

Then again, when did they? When have Tottenham ever been the club with the most money? It has never stopped them before.

Pochettino is deserving of sympathy and no little respect. Everyone acknowledges the job he has done at Tottenham. Yet qualifying for the Champions League and winning a domestic cup competition should not be regarded as mutually exclusive. Other clubs do it, because that is the mark of elite membership.

Since 2002-03 when Premier League entry to the Champions League became a minimum of four clubs each season, five have accounted for 63 of England's places. Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea have been in 15 times each, Liverpool on 10 occasions, Manchester City eight.

During that period Chelsea have won five FA Cups and three League Cups, Manchester United two FA Cups and four League Cups, Arsenal five FA Cups, Manchester City one FA Cup and three League Cups and Liverpool one FA Cup and two League Cups. This season's League Cup will go to either Manchester City or Chelsea, too.

So it is possible to remain in the top four and win a cup. It is not just about an ego trip for the manager, or players — it is an intrinsic part of the profile of an elite club.

Tottenham's only trophy in this period is the League Cup in 2008, won before the club began qualifying for the modern Champions League.

Pochettino's implication is that the top-four finish takes it all out of them, and there is no room for anything else. Yet there used to be. In five of their cup-winning seasons, Tottenham finished high enough to have qualified for the modern Champions League.

They won the FA Cup and came third in 1961-62, the European Cup-winners' Cup and second in 1962-63, the FA Cup and third in 1966-67, the League Cup and third in 1970-71 and the FA Cup and fourth in 1981-82.

Was English football any less competitive then? Clubs were often the best in Europe, and the league was certainly more open.

Equally, many more of Tottenham's rivals were as strong financially. Between 1961 and 1982, the British transfer record was broken 14 times — but only once by Tottenham, paying £200,000 for Martin Peters in March 1970. The following year, Arsenal topped that, for Alan Ball. In all, Tottenham were one of 11 English clubs capable of paying a record fee for a player in that period.

The others? Manchester United, Leicester, Leeds, Arsenal, Derby, Everton, West Brom, Nottingham Forest, Manchester City and Wolves. No sovereign wealth funds or oil money, but the competition was certainly out there.

Perhaps what is most dispiriting for any Tottenham fan who dreams of seeing a trophy held aloft at the town hall is that the tournaments that now matter most are the hardest to win.

Tottenham's last league title came in 1961 and in the modern Champions League they have only once reached the last eight, under Harry Redknapp in 2011.

The Pochettino years have been rather underwhelming: a group stage exit followed by defeat against Juventus in the last 16. There have been some great nights — not least the 3-1 home wins over Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund — but nothing that suggests Tottenham are ready to take on what Pochettino described as the last level.

Their next Champions League opponents are Dortmund, Bundesliga leaders, and much improved in roughly 18 months since their last Wembley visit. In the previous seven seasons, Dortmund have made five appearances in Germany's cup final, winning it twice.

It could be argued this is the more traditional and effective method of muscling in and remaining among elite company. It certainly suggests there is another way.