Twelve months on from the moment everything changed for Newcastle United, how much is actually different?
Lifting the Carabao Cup last March closed off a great obsession, but the theory that a first domestic trophy for 70 years might soothe a famously restless club remains precisely that. At times, St James’ Park has itched as if Wembley never happened.
Newcastle can no longer be dismissed as perennial losers, but nor has winning become engrained, so who and what they are has become muddled. A fractious summer and the late loss of Alexander Isak, who had scored the historic winner, summoned desperation which has never faded.
It is hard to argue that Eddie Howe’s team is better. The players who dismantled Liverpool automatically became legends — with one bitter exception, Isak — but have waded through this campaign. There have been highs, but they were ninth in the Premier League after beating Chelsea; an accurate picture of inconsistency and slog.
Above Howe, there has been a flushing out of Newcastle’s executive structure and renewed declarations of ambition. That sense of purpose is welcome, but four-and-a-half years on from their contentious takeover, led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), Newcastle remain in peculiar limbo. Progress on big-ticket issues — stadium, a new training ground — continues, but at a glacial pace (at least outwardly).
After decades of yearning, Newcastle are still waiting, only this time for what’s next, with clarity impaired by a blizzard of matches (a European-high 49 games this season). Perhaps this represents the end of one era and the beginning of another, where winning is no longer a beautiful adventure, but the expected norm.
“It’s an interesting emotional journey,” David Hopkinson, Newcastle’s chief executive, tells The Athletic. “When you’re lovable losers, and you beat anybody, it’s awesome. Then you get to the place where you lose to Everton and you’re miserable. But it’s wonderful that our expectations for ourselves have changed. People expect us to TCOB — take care of business. That’s the phase we should be in.”
After all those years of failure, glorious or otherwise, it feels like business as unusual for Newcastle.
Winners’ dividend?
Wembley did not feel like business. Unlike their previous, miserable excursions there, Newcastle — fans and players — turned up and dominated, on the field and in the stands.
The whole weekend — alongside the city-centre trophy parade and celebration — brought uplift and myriad examples of growth, potential, and possibility.
Newcastle launched a #WeDon’tDoQuiet social-media campaign leading into the final. Across a fortnight, per post, their average reach, impressions and engagements grew substantially, while their video views increased fivefold. With 421 million social-media accounts reached and 496 million impressions, Newcastle reaped brand recognition.
Critically, what those worldwide onlookers were seeing was a winning Newcastle on the field, plus 300,000 supporters packing out the city’s streets, hanging off buildings and lamp-posts to revel in the glory.
It was the best advert possible.
That increased social-media interest has continued, though those inside Newcastle — speaking anonymously so they can talk freely, like others cited throughout — believe their return to the Champions League has had a greater effect on maintaining wider appeal.
Newcastle’s celebrations were a good advert for the club (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
On the pitch
Since Newcastle’s elevation to the Premier League in 1993, supporters had witnessed almost everything: promotions, relegations, finals, Europe, chaos and rebirth.
Only one box remained unticked: silverware.
It was difficult to contemplate what comes after finally winning something. What happened afterwards was (a lot) more football — 59 matches (and counting).
“I really wish I could say my life has been changed by winning, but I feel exactly the same,” Howe told The Athletic recently. “I have to continually push. It’s a great feeling and memory, but in football, you’re judged on tomorrow. I can never look at it as the end. If I do that, I’m the wrong person to be in charge.”
Newcastle’s tomorrow has been awkward.
They carried momentum towards the summer, qualifying for the Champions League by winning six in 10, but this deserted them when Paul Mitchell left as sporting director, and then Isak left.
The striker’s departure has cast a shadow since. Isak’s actions were disrespectfully militant, but Newcastle damagingly bungled the situation.
Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa were signed for a combined £119million ($157.8m) late on in the window. While Woltemade started well, scoring with his first six shots on target, Howe has subsequently tried to convert the German into a No 8. Wissa suffered a three-month injury lay-off and has laboured since returning, starting one of the last 13 games. Anthony Gordon, a winger, is the first-choice centre-forward, with Will Osula ahead of Wissa and Woltemade in the pecking order.
While Bruno Guimaraes, the captain, treated the cup as another step towards “writing history” with Newcastle, Isak seemingly viewed his winner as his final great act for the club. He moved to an already elite side, rather than stay at one where such status remains prospective.
Regardless, the cup has had a positive impact on Newcastle’s perception among potential targets. The recruitment team can point to material on-field success. Since 2023, alongside twice qualifying for the Champions League, Newcastle have reached two finals and lifted a trophy.
Those inside the club accept “players want the Champions League” and that being in Europe every season is a paramount consideration. But players also want medals, so Newcastle believe their recruitment pitch has been strengthened.
Admittedly, that did not decisively tip the balance last summer. Whenever they were in direct competition with a big club for a player — Joao Pedro (Chelsea), Hugo Ekitike (Liverpool), Benjamin Sesko (Manchester United) — they lost out. Only multiple trophies, consistent Champions League qualification and larger revenues will alter that.
From the £241m invested, only Malick Thiaw has been an unqualified success. Jacob Ramsey is starting to impress, while Anthony Elanga is gradually improving, but Wissa has so far looked like a £55m panic buy. Once Woltemade’s goals dried up, his unsuitability for Newcastle’s high-intensity game plan became apparent.
Malick Thiaw has been the most successful of last summer’s signings (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
The first XI was not upgraded; their squad is deeper, but removing Isak immediately made Newcastle weaker.
This season has been transitional. Newcastle are an unfinished team and, in the league, have struggled for consistency. While Newcastle’s general win percentage post-final is 47 per cent, in the Premier League this season it is 40 per cent, with as many defeats (12) as victories (12).
Rather than be content with a solitary trophy, Howe’s desire for further silverware has been “relentless”, according to well-placed sources. Newcastle qualified for the Champions League round of 16 for the first time and could yet down Barcelona. They reached the Carabao Cup semi-finals during a laudable trophy defence, and the FA Cup fifth round. Manchester City eliminated them from both.
But Newcastle’s knockout progression has stretched resources and, with matches every midweek, Howe has been unable to properly train his players, which is his great strength.
A bottom-half league finish would be unsatisfactory, with European qualification a stated goal of Ross Wilson, the sporting director. The hierarchy would prefer securing a Europa League or Conference League spot over no European football next season, given the need for greater revenue, but a significant uptick in form is needed.
A widespread squad refresh is required, and nobody inside Newcastle is pretending otherwise. A significant volume of incomings and outgoings are anticipated this summer and Howe must decide whether a different striker is required, or to evolve stylistically and rebuild around Woltemade.
In hindsight, the final felt like the last great act of a team that requires belated reconstruction.
Physical reminders
On a St James’ stadium tour this month, the first words to 30 visitors from Spain, Finland, the U.S. and Stoke-on-Trent were, “Welcome to the home of the Carabao Cup winners”, but the trophy was not there that day. There are sighs of disappointment.
Newcastle are no longer in possession of the actual League Cup. They were afforded the trophy for 11 months, and the club made a conscious effort to allow as many supporters as possible to see it.
Alongside 45 appearances at charity, commercial, club and supporter events, the trophy was taken on six overseas visits; to the U.S., Japan, Singapore and South Korea. Two staff members were required to be present with the trophy at all times.
Over a 90-minute stroll around the stadium, the cup is referred to six times, but the physical evidence of Newcastle’s triumph is limited. There are no photographs, pictures or murals, though “winners’ champagne” is advertised in executive boxes.
There is little physical evidence of the Carabao Cup win at St James’s Park (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
There is nothing obvious on sale in the club shop commemorating the final win now; the Champions League dominates retail ranges.
Yet the triumph did bring a spike in retail sales. ‘Winners 25′ shirts, final programmes, scarves, mugs, hoodies, caps and Champagne were among official memorabilia, with more sold than Newcastle have seats inside St James’ (52,000).
In the old Milburn reception, where opposition players enter, great moments in Newcastle’s history are painted on the walls. The last entry is Alan Shearer breaking the club’s goalscoring record in 2006. It is hardly inspiring or intimidating and should already have been updated.
In time, it will. The plan is for the reception to be completely redecorated, potentially with interactive state-of-the-art digital screens that can be updated. The Carabao Cup triumph will feature, and the replica trophy may even be housed there.
Off the pitch
Change has swept through Newcastle off the pitch. Having found themselves without a chief executive or sporting director throughout a destabilising summer, those positions have been filled by Hopkinson and Wilson, but beneath those senior appointments, there has been significant churn.
Before either arrived, Sudarshan Gopaladesikan joined from Atalanta as the club’s first-ever technical director — to revolutionise Newcastle’s use of data — while Jack Ross was promoted to head of football strategy.
Gone are Peter Silverstone, the former chief operating officer, a position being replaced by a chief revenue officer (CRO), plus other directors in marketing and human resources. Kenneth McIver, a Geordie who was formerly global design director for Nike Football, has been elevated to chief creative officer.
Interviews have taken place for four new roles — chief strategy officer, chief marketing officer, head of people, and CRO — with Hopkinson asking: “Can we attract the type of talent to our executive team that fuels our global ambitions, who are at the top of their fields? Who want to come here with high conviction to be part of that change? I have every confidence we’re going to get there.”
On his arrival in September, Hopkinson — formerly of New York’s Madison Square Garden group (MSG) and Real Madrid — conducted a 100-day review of Newcastle’s operations. He delivered a nearly 400-page report to PIF, complete with a plan for Newcastle to be “contending for the biggest prizes in football consistently and credibly by 2030”, as he puts it. “I think we’re on track for that.”
Since Newcastle’s takeover, movement on key infrastructure projects has been sluggish, but land is in the process of being purchased for a purpose-built training ground in Woolsington, near Newcastle International Airport, while the club are inching towards a decision on whether to move from or rebuild St James’, with the former the preferred option of many insiders.
Hopkinson was still talking to Newcastle — and other potential employers — when the Carabao Cup final took place. He did not watch. “I would have described myself as curious about Newcastle, but I assumed Liverpool were going to smash them into bits,” Hopkinson says. “Then when I saw the parade afterwards, it was, ‘OK, now I get it’.
“I had a theory that winning the trophy sharpened hunger, rather than satisfied it. That’s what I’ve seen: ‘Now we want more’. Before that, evidence suggested Newcastle can’t win anything. What’s helpful now is we’ve shown we can. So the question becomes: ‘What do we do with that from here?’.
“That’s what we’re focused on. We’re going to measure our success in trophies. This isn’t a job, it’s a mission.”
That ‘mission’ has been codified. The club’s previous values have been revised, and the rebranded “Newcastle Code” intends to develop a high-performance culture that can turn them into serial winners.
By Hopkinson’s reckoning, Newcastle are “incontrovertibly” in a stronger place than they were six months ago, simply by virtue of Wilson’s presence.
Wilson has set about buttressing football operations. The scouting network has been expanded — Thomas Federspiel joined from Nottingham Forest to become Newcastle’s lead figure in South America — while data scientists will arrive. Wilson has reviewed and amended plans for the prospective new training ground.
“Ross is an extraordinary executive, and he’s built a great partnership with Eddie and with me,” Hopkinson says. “A house divided against itself cannot stand. We don’t have that; we have alignment.”
This speaks of change still to come and the compelling thought that a tight relationship between the three most senior figures could — and should — make the team better and club richer.
It is also their side of the bargain; for the fourth successive year, general season-ticket prices have risen five per cent — a controversial move, especially with few commercial deals announced. Hopkinson has promised those, with new partnerships expected before the summer.
Ross Wilson is now Newcastle’s sporting director (Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)
For now, they remain prospective, and supporters are yearning for tangible developments. Those lucrative deals are necessary because the prize money for winning the cup was a meagre £100,000.
“Are we getting everything right? Clearly not because no one does,” Hopkinson says. “While I don’t want to be 12th in March, even a setback and the knock-on effects for next year don’t derail the plan. Where we’ve got to be between now and 2030 and the major milestones we need to hit, we can hit them.”
An ongoing recalibration
“Does Newcastle feel different since winning a trophy? Yes,” Alex Hurst, of True Faith fanzine, says. “The ‘what does this feel like?’ we’d never experienced has been removed. I don’t want to call it ‘pressure’, but things have changed because of it.”
Perspective has shifted.
Defeats to Brentford and Everton were followed by boos at St James’ due to Newcastle’s persistently poor league form. There have been growing questions, particularly on social media, regarding Howe’s longevity.
“There’s a lot of pressure because of what we’ve done,” Kieran Trippier, the right-back, told The Athletic recently. “We should relish that responsibility. The ambition now is to win again.”
Given the turbulence of the intervening year, some supporters question what comes next.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the chairman, declared at Wembley that this was “the first, but not the last” trophy. Aside from an unlikely Champions League tilt, Newcastle will end this campaign without further silverware.
“The final was fantastic, but it feels now like it was the pinnacle of the first part of the takeover,” Hurst says. “It doesn’t look like the first of many right now. I feel we’re floundering, on and off the pitch.”
Hopkinson is adamant that a clear vision and plan are now in place, but the recalibration remains ongoing. For all the change, whether it will deliver the promise of sustained success is the great unknown.
In this regard, an emotional, mystifying club remains exactly the same. Just as the takeover did not bring about immediate dominance, neither has the inaugural trophy engendered an immediate dynasty.
TCOB may not yet be the new normal for Newcastle.
