The party vibe is showing no signs of evaporating just yet at Newcastle United.
“To be brutally honest it hasn’t quite sunk in yet,” was the verdict of one insider at the club this week, who suspects the same is true for many in a squad that has billeted across the globe since their historic Carabao Cup win just over a week ago.
It was a quirk of the calendar that as the drinks flowed at the Grove Hotel in Hertfordshire in the aftermath of their Wembley victory, there was little time to truly savour a win that prompted euphoria back in Newcastle.
In Marbella at a training camp with the Sweden national team, Alexander Isak summed it up: “You cannot describe it, almost every fan I looked up at in Wembley was crying.
“There were so many emotions in my head, it was almost surreal. The best day of my life? From a football perspective I think so.
“The party was incredible – although not too long for me as I was leaving in the morning – and I can’t wait to see what Newcastle is like as a city after that.”
On Saturday, he and his teammates will finally get to witness it as an estimated 150,000 supporters converge on the city’s Town Moor for a party seven decades in the making.
The event – announced last week but with details set to be confirmed in the coming days – will follow an open-topped bus parade through the city which could draw three or four times more along the route.
This being Newcastle – a city not used to celebrating major trophies – there had been some upset at the initial absence of a parade open to all.
But “almost hourly” meetings of various safety groups and city officials are going on to ensure Saturday’s event – which falls nicely in a weekend freed up by Newcastle’s FA Cup exit – is a once-in-a-generation party for fans genuinely captivated by the Carabao Cup win.
The excitement around the city is palpable and you do wonder how the club will manage the comedown with a home fixture against Brentford just a few days later.
Given the success Eddie Howe had in changing the mindset of his players before Wembley, it would be little surprise if a similar set of psychological tools weren’t being used to get the squad focused on a run of games that gives them a huge opportunity to secure a Champions League place that – whisper it quietly – might actually be more consequential in the short-term than the Carabao Cup win.
Thomas Frank’s side can be obdurate opponents – their 4-2 win over Newcastle in December represented a crossroads in the Magpies’ season, prompting some harsh words from Howe to the squad – but the next games are a trip to woeful Leicester City before a St James’ Park appointment with Manchester United that should get the juices flowing.
These matches really, really matter. Newcastle may have already stamped their ticket for a return to European competition next season but the Conference League is distinctly small fry in comparison to the Champions League.
To put it in context: Aston Villa have already earned over £40m from their run this season, while Arsenal’s earnings are pushing towards £90m.
Newcastle would expect to put similar on their bottom line and it is understood some of their “ambitious” summer transfer targets – think Bournemouth’s Dean Huijsen, Ipswich Town’s Liam Delap and the excellent PSV Eindhoven forward Johan Bakayoko – have already told the club that Champions League football is a strong preference.
The i Paper understands that many of the commercial deals being worked on by the club will multiply if they are back in the Champions League, and there is capacity in the Adidas deal to earn more with another run there.
As fun as last week was for the club, it seems clear that if Newcastle are to fulfil the pledge of chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan that the Carabao Cup will be “the first of many”, they need to be in Europe’s elite competition every season.
Those who know this group believe they will be lifted by Wembley success and there is the prospect of players returning to lift the group, too.
It is understood that Sven Botman, who had a knee operation earlier this month, is making good progress and could be on target to return before the original eight-week prognosis for his lay-off.
Similarly, Anthony Gordon’s absence is not expected to be significant despite returning from England duty prematurely.
The issue for Howe this season has not been the big games, which Newcastle have consistently performed well in.
It is raising themselves for the run of the mill fixtures when, laden with expectation, the likes of Isak and Bruno Guimaraes have performed a few notches below the stellar best they exhibited at Wembley.
At the risk of sounding like a party pooper, they need to make the most of Saturday and then pretend it didn’t happen for the next eight weeks.
Their place in history is assured, but there is still a huge prize to play for.
from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/oDwdGfr
Post a Comment
EmoticonClick to see the code!
To insert emoticon you must added at least one space before the code.