It felt like just the start. As Yasir Al-Rumayyan held the Carabao Cup aloft in front of the tens of thousands of hoarse Geordies at Wembley, the Newcastle United chairman declared: “That’s the first – and it’s not going to be the last.”
Such a prospect alarmed executives elsewhere following the takeover three-and-a-half years ago. After all, Newcastle’s owners have never disguised their ambition to one day compete for even bigger prizes.
Yet clubs do not fight for the title overnight. Newcastle may have defeated Liverpool on Sunday, but the league leaders are 23 points clear of the Magpies in the top-flight for a reason.
That’s why the cups are an important building block to get the monkey off a disruptor’s back, to build a winning mentality, to believe even greater days are actually possible in the future. There are no guarantees, of course, but the cups have so often proved a springboard for even greater success.
It was a very different era – more on that later – but Chelsea won the Carabao Cup just a few months before ending a lengthy title drought in 2005. Manchester City, similarly, won their first Premier League a year after lifting the FA Cup.
Chelsea and Manchester City have won plenty more since. For context, you previously had to go back to Swansea City, in 2013, for the last time an outsider lifted the Carabao Cup. Since then, Manchester City have won the competition six times, Liverpool and Manchester United have each triumphed twice and Chelsea have taken the cup home once.
The FA Cup, similarly, has been monopolised by the established order. In fact, in the last decade or so, Arsenal have won the competition four times, Manchester City and Manchester United have each triumphed twice and Liverpool and Chelsea have each lifted the cup on one solitary occasion. The only outlier? Leicester City in 2021.
Newcastle, like Leicester in years gone by, have had to be smart to compete with sides with superior wage bills and bigger revenues, but there is a crucial difference between the two clubs. Whereas Leicester fell away, and now find themselves facing up to a second relegation in two seasons, Newcastle have the ambition and resources to keep hold of their best players and the backing to strengthen. Within the constraints of PSR rules, of course.
(Image: Offside via Getty Images)
That is the main distinction between this project and, say, what Chelsea and Manchester City achieved before PSR rules were even introduced in 2013. The regulations have slowed the rapid, head-spinning pace of Newcastle’s rise, following three frustrating transfer windows, yet the Magpies have continued to find ways to compete. Thanks, in no small part, to Eddie Howe, who was already talking about ‘wanting more of these days’ after ending the club’s 70-year wait for a major domestic trophy.
“That will continue to drive me,” he told NUFC TV. “I won’t change. I can’t. I’m built this way now and I just want continued success. That only comes from hard work.”
This is the mentality Howe has bred at the club and it was striking how the Newcastle boss’ words were echoed by his players following a rare taste of silverware. Joelinton ‘hoped it was the start of a new era’. Alexander Isak hoped there were ‘just bright days in front of us’. Bruno Guimaraes hoped it was ‘just the beginning of trophies for this club’. You would not bet against it.
Newcastle United Carabao Cup WINNERS 2024/25
At last, Newcastle have their hands on silverware!
After an agonising 56-year wait, the Magpies’ amazing army of fans can celebrate watching their side lift a trophy after their Carabao Cup final win. And to celebrate, the Newcastle Chronicle have produced this souvenir special, marking the Wembley triumph.
It is packed full of reaction, analysis and quotes as well as amazing pictures from the day, and a centre-spread poster.
It is the perfect souvenir of an historic day for Newcastle.
Buy now and have it delivered directly to your door. Alternatively you can purchase in most supermarkets, high street retailers and independent newsagents in the North East from March 20, 2025.
View news Source: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/yasir-al-rumayyans-11-words-31216699
