From the high of March 16, 2025, to the low of February 4, 2026, Newcastle United meekly surrendered the cup we all longed for and enjoyed having in our possession for the past eleven months.
In reality, our grip on the League Cup had loosened somewhat on January 13, 2026, the night Manchester’s oil barons stormed into town. Rayan Cherki’s goal was a dagger in the heart in time.
It was just a Micky Mouse cup, right?
Try telling that to the Geordie nation, to those who painted Wembley black and white, to the many others who watched in pubs and clubs at home and around the world, or to the estimated 300,000 people who lined the streets of the city to watch Eddie Howe take the trophy to the Moor.
For such a cup, Arsenal fans seemed particularly happy when Kai Havertz scored late on to confirm their place in the final twenty-four hours before we lost at the Emptihad.
I don’t call the former home of the Manchester Commonwealth Games the Emptihad for nothing, slang for the fact they can’t fill it.
And yet this is such a big club… their income exceeds that of their not-so-noisy neighbors; only around £30m separated the two Manchester clubs in the 2024/25 accounts, but both more than twice Newcastle United’s turnover last season.
How those levels of Manchester City revenue are generated is another matter and to that end, the Premier League’s 115 accusations that this club is in trouble with their odious manager, still remains hopelessly excellent, have been bogged down in legal maneuvering, with no sense that this will come to a conclusion anytime soon.
In the meantime, they continue to recruit top players with impunity.
Last summer, Manchester City brought in two talented goalkeepers and also received the help of Tijjani Reidjners, Rayan Cherki and Rayan Ait-Nouri in the same summer period of 2025. Not happy with that, Pep Guardiola did ‘good business’ in the January window that has just ended, signing two of the Premier League’s top players, Semenyo and Guehi.
If this seems sour, because of the defeat in the semi-finals, then that is right.
But I’m not directing all my anger at Manchester City.
Everyone knows that the gap between the so-called big six and the rest is widening, a financial disparity that determines everything from transfer spending to wage costs to the ability to retain top talent and even send them out at the right time, happily recycling the resulting money and reinforcing the status quo.
You could say that breaking this cycle will require extraordinary performance from both management and players, as well as significant investment.
It’s arguable that Newcastle United have benefited from both since 2021 and yet, when push comes to shove, we are overloaded and need a boost in the form of a Semenyo and a Ghuei, which is simply not possible.
So what will happen to Newcastle United, stuck in a system designed to stifle projects like the ones Newcastle United’s new owners had in mind when they burst onto the scene in October 2021?
Without significant change, not much.
Can Newcastle United win another trophy in my lifetime? I would think so. If we have to succeed this season, we have to win at Villa Park in ten days.
If and when it does happen, realistically it would probably be one of the domestic cup competitions or one of the lesser UEFA trophies.
Is that so bad? Probably not for some of us, but that doesn’t change the fact that the entire system is unjust.
#feels #lose #grip #trophy..