The Newcastle United boss was quizzed on how important the Carabao Cup is to him on the priority list
Newcastle United Head Coach Eddie Howe travels back to Newcastle upon Tyne with the Carabao Cup
Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe will defend the Carabao Cup this season
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Eddie Howe has insisted winning the Carabao Cup again this season with Newcastle United would mean more than a cash-laden run to the latter stages of the Champions League.
Howe's side have Tottenham Hotspur standing in their way of a place in the quarter-finals this year, but will only get a cheque of £15,000 for seeing off Thomas Frank's side.
Lifting the Carabao Cup is worth just £100,000 in prize money to the Saudi-backed Magpies with that amount dwarfed by the £1.8m UEFA payment picked up for last week's 3-0 victory over Benfica.
After breaking the club's 70-year domestic trophy drought and seeing 300,000 people attend Newcastle's open-top bus parade back in March, after beating Liverpool in the Wembley showpiece, Howe will not be reviewing his priorities - despite the huge sums on offer from Europe.
Howe said: "I can assure you that money is the last thing on the players' mind, when they are competing. You are just competing to win.
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"I was not aware of the numbers, that's how much attention I pay to it. It is about being the best you can be on a consistent basis.
"There is a game in front of us that we are striving to win."
In one of Howe's first squad meetings when taking the job at Newcastle he outlined the importance of the League Cup and ripped up the Magpies' cup policy under previous boss Mike Ashley.
On Ashley's watch, Newcastle went as far as releasing a statement that made it clear the domestic cups would see youngsters fielded where possible with the priority being survival in the Premier League - much to the disgust of the Geordie public who were desperate to see a solitary trophy lift.
Howe said: "It is very difficult for me to comment on what happened before I got here and I won't begin to try.
"These games are all about your culture and your will to win with the squad."
Howe guided Newcastle to the final of the Carabao Cup in 2023 and reached the last eight in 2024 before winning it last season.
He said: "That feeling was incredible. And one of the big drivers once you have experienced that is that you want it again. And you want it again as quickly as possible.
We don’t have unlimited opportunities for that so this is one of those chances to go far in a competition, to go deep and to try and repeat the experience.
"But these early rounds are really really difficult. Tottenham’s away form is very strong.
"In some senses, that is a good thing for us because it sharpens our minds and leaves us in no uncertain terms what we have to do.
"We've had a lot of great experiences in this competition - the first final, the emotions after the game, feeling we could have done more on the pitch.
"The Chelsea defeat (in 2023/24) is still very painful - we had a chance to win the competition that year - but we put it right. We had a lot of tough opponents - we didn’t get to the final by luck. That experience, winning the cup, has helped us grow as a team."
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