. Newcastle’s manager had just been asked whether his team were jinxed and a sense of deja vu permeated the room.
That query has echoed, periodically, around St James’ Park throughout the 70 years since Gypsies reputedly placed a powerful curse on the club. As staff and players holidayed after winning the FA Cup in 1955, Travellers set up camp at a deserted training ground before being, somewhat unceremoniously, ejected.
Regardless of whether the resultant hex is apocryphal – as several of Howe’s 30-odd, post-1955 managerial predecessors invariably argued – Newcastle have since failed to collect a major domestic trophy.
They won the European Fairs Cup in 1969 but since 1955 they have lost three FA Cup and two League Cup finals. Throw in the late stumble by Kevin Keegan’s “Entertainers” in the 1995-96 Premier League title race with Manchester United and it is easy to understand why excitement comes tinged with apprehension on Tyneside as a second Carabao Cup final in three years beckons.
This historical backdrop explains why Newcastle’s captain, Bruno Guimarães, describes Sunday’s Wembley date with Liverpool as “our World Cup final” and why Howe repeatedly reiterates his “burning desire” to end the silverware drought. With the club fast approaching a complicated crossroads there can rarely have been a more opportune moment to eclipse Mohamed Salah and co.
After almost four years in post, Howe could do with presenting Newcastle’s Saudi Arabian owners with the long-craved trophy that would represent a key milestone towards Yasir al-Rumayyan’s aim of conquering Europe.
The chair’s ambition has been slowed appreciably by Premier League profitability and sustainability rules that, owing to Newcastle’s relatively puny commercial revenue streams, limit the ownership’s …
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