The calls and messages have started already.
Newcastle United may still be 90 minutes from Wembley – far enough for Eddie Howe to spend the weekend warning his players of the dire consequences of the twin threats of complacency and surrendering to caution by trying to protect their one goal first leg advantage – but fans are already jockeying for position for their Carabao Cup final tickets.
One secondary ticketing site is advertising guaranteed tickets for nearly £700 and have apparently taken a few calls from the North East. Whether anyone bites at the £2,000 hospitality ticket they’re offering is unclear but the League Cup feels the hottest ticket on Tyneside, where St James’ Park could have been sold out three times over for Tuesday night’s visit of Southampton in the semi-final second leg.
For Newcastle, it is 47 years since their last League Cup final. Manchester United, who thrashed Nottingham Forest 3-0 at the City Ground in the first leg, were last in the final six years ago, but Erik Ten Hag has the club’s longest trophy drought for 40 years to bring to an end. Their second leg is laden with significance.
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“Potentially season-defining,” admitted Newcastle boss Howe on Monday. He spoke of channelling the fervour of St James’ Park, where fans will bring scarves and flags to whip up an atmosphere. It feels like, after a period of decline that reached its nadir when Arsene Wenger contended that winning the League Cup would not qualify as ending his trophy drought in 2010, the competition is very much alive and kicking again.
The timing of the League Cup in the calendar enables it to hit that sweet spot of being ripe for unheralded teams to make an impact while also being taken seriously by the big hitters. Birmingham, Swansea and Middlesbrough have won it in the last 20 years while Bradford City, Cardiff, Bolton and Sunderland have all made the final. But since 2014 the winners have emerged from the heavyweight division: Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool.
Perhaps we should make the most of it while it lasts. Change is coming and from next year the competition could look very different.
As a result of the shake-up of the Champions League format to a so-called Swiss model that guarantees the 36 qualifiers eight first round matches and hoovers up 12 mid-weeks before Christmas rather than the six currently set aside for the competition, changes to the look of the 2024-25 fixture list are unavoidable.
The debate currently raging among the game’s decision-makers is how to accommodate those extra European games in the calendar and predictably it is the Carabao Cup that is in the crosshairs.
Some of the more left-field proposals being talked about so far range from scrapping the competition outright to allowing clubs that qualify for the Champions League to field under-23 sides until the semi-final stages, turning the League Cup into nothing more than a glorified Papa John’s Trophy.
Nothing has been agreed yet but one thing is almost certain: if the format changes significantly along those lines, it will be the death knell for a competition with a rich history. The Europa League prize for the winners would inevitably disappear and soon enough, the interest of the rest of the Premier League would vanish too.
The EFL is fighting any changes. Without a vibrant League Cup, their TV offering declines substantially – and the rights package is up for renewal in the next 12 months. They know many of their member clubs would suffer for the loss of potential revenue that Cup ties with big hitters bring. But the suspicion is that for many clubs now in the hands of owners with little respect for English football’s traditions, it is expendable.
It was put to Howe by i that the League Cup is on the endangered list. “I would be against changes to the League Cup – I think it’s had a new lease of life in recent years,” he said.
“Because it’s played early and you’re still forming your team, your rhythm and how you’re going to play through the season I think it’s taken on more importance in recent years.
“I enjoy the format, I enjoy the two-legged semi-finals. The two-legged semi-finals are something different and there’s uniqueness to the cup that has served it well over the years.
“I’d love to see it carry on as it is.” It is a trophy worth winning and a tradition worth fighting for.
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