Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
Visit Shots! now
It has taken a special manager and special group of players to end Newcastle United’s long wait for silverware.
56 years without a trophy for Newcastle United, it was always going to take something special to end one of the biggest droughts in English football.
Step forward a special manager and a special group of players. Legendary status achieved, and boy do they all deserve it. They all have their own story to tell.
Starting with the boss, Edward John Howe, the South Coast native turned Geordie messiah. The man who went the full way when iconic figures such as Kevin Keegan and Sir Bobby Robson fell short.
‘That fella’ who ended Newcastle United’s 70-year domestic trophy drought
As one former Newcastle head coach put it in 2021, Howe is the ‘fella from Bournemouth who got a team relegated’. It was a silly, disrespectful comment then. It looks even more foolish now.
Howe is the ‘fella’ that, after seeing his playing career snatched away from him due to injury, stepped into management at the age of 31, saving Bournemouth from the brink of existence before climbing all the way to the Premier League.
It was during those early dark days when Howe put his hand in his own pocket to fund vital commodities. And, through other unseen work, Howe built an incredible, never-say-die team spirit. 17 years on and Howe has harnessed the same on Tyneside.
I suspect you won’t meet anyone who wouldn’t run through a brick wall for him.
Click here to join NewcastleWorld's dedicated NUFC WhatsApp channel for news, videos and voice notes. CLICK THE BELL FOR NOTIFICATIONS.
Howe is the fella who took a 15-month break from football to educate himself to the max so that when Newcastle United came calling in November 2021, they got an even better version than Bournemouth did. And my god did Newcastle need him.
6am starts at the training ground and meticulous in everything that he does, United’s journey under Howe has largely been a dream come true. It hasn’t always been perfect but then again what is? In just over three years, the 47-year-old has taken the club to new heights.
Howe is the fella that kept Newcastle in the Premier League before the next season reaching a first cup final in 24 years and qualifying for the Champions League. *That* win over Paris Saint-Germain was probably the closest feeling Newcastle fans, who have become accustomed to failure and disappointment, have had to winning a trophy since the turn of the millennium.
But now we can say Howe is the fella that brought a bloody trophy home (!!). Yes, Howe has been aided by his Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia owners, but he is the man who has put all the pieces together. And that is no easy feat, not at a club that doesn’t win anything… well, now they do!
A modest and down-to-earth Howe won’t want to take much, if any credit. And his players have too been on their own unique journeys.
Newcastle United’s history-making squad
Released from boyhood club Ipswich Town as a kid, Nick David Pope started in non-league before earning a move to Charlton Athletic. Even then, it wasn’t plain sailing, with eight separate loan spells at five different clubs.
To Burnley and then Newcastle, the 32-year-old’s performances had come under scrutiny in the weeks leading up to the final. How wrong of us to doubt him. Pope took the goalkeeping standard to another level when he arrived in 2022 and that save to deny Curtis Jones at 2-0 was just one of many examples.
Kieran John Trippier. The first player to sign under PIF and the first player to believe in the project. A transformative signing both on and off the pitch, he’s 34 now and has naturally shown signs of slowing down but on the big stage at Wembley, Newcastle got Trippier of old, whom many fans regard as the best right-back in the club’s 133 history.
Fabian Lukas Schar. Had Steve Bruce stayed any longer then the former Switzerland international would have likely walked away for free at the end of the 2021-22 season. Under Howe, no player has made more appearances for Newcastle, with the £3million Rafa Benitez paid for him from Deportivo La Coruna in 2018 ranking among the Premier League best bargains.
Daniel Johnson Burn. Crikey, man, is there a better story!?
The Blyth-born defender has gone from non-league and pushing trollies in Asda to scoring in the Champions League and cup final for his boyhood club. It might feel like another cup win on Tyneside if Burn, at the age of 32, makes his England debut in the next seven days.
It’s hard to think of anyone who deserves it more based on the amount of hoops Burn has had to jump through to be where he is today.
Valentino Francisco Livramento. That ACL injury must feel like a lifetime ago now. Empty his pockets from Sunday and he’ll find Mohamed Salah.
Sandro Tonali. The Italian left the comfort of his boyhood club AC Milan to join Newcastle for big bucks (£55million) and his first year in England couldn’t have been much tougher.
People doubted him, including myself, but through sheer resilience and talent resoundingly found a way back. The 24-year-old was like a steam train on that Wembley pitch, further underlying why he has emerged as one of the best midfielders in Europe.
Bruno Guimaraes Rodrigues Moura. Bruno just gets it, and has done since the minute he arrived through the door from Lyon three years ago.
That takes me back to his first press conference, where eyebrows were raised when he said he wanted to play in the Champions League and write his name in the club’s history. Yet here we are. He stuck to his promise to become the first Newcastle captain since Bob Moncur in 1969 to lift a trophy.
There is something about Brazilians and Newcastle United that just goes hand-in-hand, isn’t there?
Onto Joelinton Cassio Apolinario de Lira, the £40m flop turned midfield powerhouse, aggressor beast and machine. There have been many transformation stories but Joelinton tops it.
Both Bruno and Joelinton, despite growing up 5,600 miles away, know more than most what it means to wear the badge. With their respective families also immersing themselves in the city, the Brazilian boys are Adopted Geordie in every meaning of the word.
Jacob Kai Murphy. Put your hand up if, three years on from the takeover, you still expected Murphy to be at Newcastle? That is in no way intended to be disrespectful, but rather a huge tip of the hat.
Born a stone’s throw away from Wembley, Murphy is a lifelong Newcastle fan - his dad John is from Ashington while his mother Maxine was born in Birtley - and is living the dream.
A dependable performer on the pitch and a prankster off it, the 30-year-old has established himself as a hugely important part of the squad. Now, imagine saying that when he was on loan at West Bromwich Albion and Sheffield Wednesday.
Harvey Lewis Barnes. Had Anthony Gordon been available, then it’s fair to assume the 27-year-old wouldn’t have started against Liverpool. He has now completed an FA Cup and League Cup after winning the former with Leicester City four years ago.
And then there is Alexander Isak. Born in Sweden after his parents fled war-torn Eritrea, the 25-year-old got a big move to Borussia Dortmund at a young age but it didn’t work out. To Newcastle via Real Sociedad, he is now one of the best strikers on the planet and the closest player Newcastle have had to Alan Shearer.
Callum Eddie Graham Wilson, Newcastle’s third most successful striker of the Premier League era, has endured countless relegation battles. So too has Joseph George Willock and Emil Henry Kristoffer Krafth.
Sean David Longstaff is another Geordie living the dream with over 200 appearances and a cup to show for it. And everything points to Lewis Miley following in similar footsteps.
Martin Dubravka, who not many people had heard of when he rocked up at Newcastle in January 2018, has seen it all. He’ll never forget the love he was shown from the fans at Arsenal in the first leg of the semi-finals.
There are Anthony Michael Gordon, Lewis Kieran Hall and Sven Adriaan Botman too, who, although couldn’t be involved at Wembley, are a big part of the reason why they got there in the first place.
Read More
I asked AI to predict Newcastle United's season after historic Carabao Cup win - and here's what it said
Newcastle United players spotted partying in Dubai as Carabao Cup celebrations get underway
Joelinton emotional - pays tribute to ‘incredible’ Newcastle United supporters
‘He is my friend’ - Sandro Tonali gets emotional talking about Eddie Howe relationship
Inside Eddie Howe’s meticulous Newcastle United cup final plan: Guest singer, Wor Flags inspiration & Anfield rethink
And what a moment it was to see Jamaal Lascelles – the boy-turned-man who stood up for this club in its hour of need to earn the captaincy – lift the trophy alongside Bruno and Trippier.
There are William Idemudia Daugaard Osula and Matthew Robert Targett too, even Odysseas Vlachodimos made an appearance in round three!
“I think we've got some players that have given so much to the club,” Howe told NewcastleWorld. “They've given so much for a long time and I think what we've done really well is we've stayed united and together.
“It's very difficult, I think, when you're the same group going again and again and again and we've got a really small pool of players, but they continue to give more and represent the club in the right way. So I'm really, really pleased.
“I could go through loads of individual stories and say how pleased I am for them. I won't have time to do that, but you know how much this means to everyone in the squad.”
All from very different backgrounds - some played bigger roles than other - yet they all have one thing in common… Newcastle United history-makers.
YOUR NEXT READ:I asked AI to predict Newcastle United's season after historic Carabao Cup win - and here's what it said.