Mauricio Pochettino: Tottenham winning the FA Cup wouldn't prove anything
Tottenham are hoping to end to end a 10-year spell without silverware by lifting this year's FA Cup
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Your support makes all the difference.Mauricio Pochettino says winning the FA Cup will prove nothing about his Tottenham team's true worth.
The Argentinian knows that he and his players are seen by many as talented nearly-men, who challenge for trophies at home and abroad before falling short.
Pochettino, however, believes that even if Tottenham do manage to end a 10-year spell without silverware by lifting the FA Cup it will merit nothing more than a chance to party.
Cup competitions are too reliant on chance and form compared to a league campaign in his eyes, and Tottenham will continue to be what they already are regardless of who eventually triumphs at Wembley.
Pochettino knows this better than anyone as he won the Copa del Rey twice as a player with Espanyol, first in 2000 and again in 2006, yet Barcelona's 'other' club retained it's inferior status on both occasions.
Victory at Swansea today will put Spurs in the last four but defeat in Wales would be shrugged off by the Argentinian, who regards the Premier League as the only true test of a club's mettle.
"I am in the history of Espanyol because we won but I don't feel it made a massive change," he said.
"OK, you can say it was a big issue because we won two trophies. I don't mean that the team that wins the cup doesn't deserve to win it but sometimes you win because the draw is kind to you. It is not the same as winning the Premier League.
"With the Premier League or La Liga, the Bundesliga or Serie A, you need to deserve to win this type of title. But with the short competitions, like in the World Cup, it's completely different.
"When Argentina went to the World Cup in Japan we were top of the Fifa rankings but we weren't in the best form and went out in the group stage. You need luck.
"There are competitions that if you win, fantastic but if you don't win, nothing changes.
"Winning the Copa del Rey changed nothing for me - nothing. Sometimes success doesn't help you to be better."
Arsenal fans would have to admit their trio of FA Cup successes in recent seasons failed to push the Gunners any closer to the Premier League crown.
And Pochettino pointed to Leicester as a club that defied the odds to go all the way in the league - at Tottenham's expense in 2015-16 - yet were unable to sustain it.
"For me, the most important thing is the process," he said. "Take Leicester - all that they enjoyed was the process. It was a fantastic story, that Leicester won the Premier League. But the moment you lift the trophy and then put it down, that disappears. Then you need to be ready for the next challenge. If not, all that happiness will transform into sadness."
Pochettino believes certain outside factors can have more influence on players, like fatherhood, with Erik Lamela now in that position.
"Coco is more mature now that he is dad," Pochettino said. "When I was 22 and I had my first son, it completely changed my vision about life.
"Every time he has had the possibility to play he's shown his quality. For me, he's still not at his best but I think he's very close. And I think the way that we are managing him is fantastic.
"He's going to be a player that is going to help in the last period of the season, in the FA Cup and the Premier League.
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