How Newcastle United Became The Ultimate Sleeping Giant

Ahead of Newcastle Uniter’s clash with Manchester United in the Carabao Cup Final, images emerged of a message coach Eddie Howe had on display for his players at the training complex in the early months of the season.

Resembling a slide from a PowerPoint presentation “we have not won a domestic trophy in 67 years” was written underneath the club’s name and crest in bold white font.

There were equal measures of awe and derision at the message, which had reportedly been on display since November.

Howe was only too happy to offer a bit more detail on what he was attempting in spelling out the length of time Magpies fans have not celebrated a win on home soil.

“In the early rounds we definitely used [the trophy drought as a motivational tool] but as it goes to the other end of the competition, we have tried to take the pressure off rather than add pressure on,” he told reporters

“It can be a very delicate balance sometimes on how you prepare psychologically for these games. As I say when you get to this stage I think the players know the responsibilities. The pressures they will face, it is a case for me to take them away and focus on the match itself.”

It should be pointed out that it’s 54 years since Newcastle United claimed a trophy of any description, the last crown being the European Fairs Cup claimed back in 1969.

Either way, there have been at least two generations of supporters in the North East who have never seen or can’t remember their club winning silverware.

Regardless of whether Newcastle United manages to overcome Manchester United to claim its first title in over half a century, the wealth the team now has at its disposal makes it unlikely the drought will last any longer than a couple of years.

Unlimited, in soccer terms at least, funds are behind the club and success is an inevitability.

As Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp saltily remarked after the takeover by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund was completed: “Newcastle is guaranteed to play a dominant role in world football for the next 20 or 30 years.”

Nevertheless, Howe’s message to the players demonstrates how success-starved fans on the North East have been.

Not that the club’s reputation has faded because of that fact, appreciation of Newcastle United’s potential has been consistently universal.

In a nation packed with teams known as ‘sleeping giants’-clubs that have a great but unrealized power-it is the ultimate example.

The likes of Nottingham Forest, Leeds United, Everton and Aston Villa have all tasted success far more recently than Newcastle, yet the perception the cavernous St James is perfectly set up to host a soccer powerhouse is somehow more compelling.

Why that is has everything to do with the 1990s, the last time Newcastle United came closest to winning a trophy.

English Soccer’s Memory Bias

For those who remember soccer in England before the creation of the Premier League in 1992, it is a source of constant frustration the collective memory often seems to begin with the breakaway competition.

But, before its establishment, the number of television cameras at English top-flight games was limited and it changed things.

Memories of the glory days for fans of any of the teams who dominated the sport in the pre-TV era will be etched in supporters’ memories, but for the wider public, it’s that much harder to comprehend them.

The brilliance of Blackpool’s Stanley Matthews in the 1950s or Nottingham Forest’s back-to-back European Cups in the 1970s is harder for generations raised on HD TV to grasp when the only images are in flickering black and white or grainy film.

The 24-hour sports coverage culture that rapidly developed in the 1990s not only changed the game at the time it altered our view of the past.

Probably part of the reason Manchester City is constantly accused by rival fans of ‘having no history’ is because there is literally no footage of its 1969 league championship triumph and that the flickering black and white of its European Cup Winners Cup success gets little airtime.

Manchester United, on the other hand, has gone ten years without a league title, yet its glorious period in the 1990s is as fresh as ever. Ole Gunnar Solkesjaer’s Champions League winning goal is replayed endlessly from so many angles it feels like yesterday.

And, it was during this period, Newcastle United made its dramatic re-emergence as a power in English soccer.

A beautiful failure: Newcastle United 1995-96

Under the charismatic leadership of soccer icon Kevin Keegan, in the 1990s the Magpies were transformed from a reasonable second division outfit to challengers for the Premier League crown.

Teams had captured the English public’s imagination in the past, Manchester United’s Busby Babes and Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest are just two of many whose charm went beyond fans of those clubs, but this was different.

When Newcastle United raced into a 12-point lead in the 1995-96 season, gaining the nickname of ‘the entertainers’ because of their expansive style, it was played out on the nation’s television screens every week.

As the title bid began to falter, the storyline Newcastle performed for the English public was even more compelling.

In the last months of the season when the Magpies outperformed Manchester United but were cruelly handed a 0-1 defeat, thanks to some incredible goalkeeping by Peter Schmeichel and terrible refereeing decisions, the injustice was visible to the nation.

Even more iconic was the sight of Keegan collapsing into an advertising hoarding as he watched Stan Collymore wheel away in celebration after scoring and added time winner. It was the defining image of what became a legendary 4-3 game, one Newcastle managed to lose despite leading twice.

But both of those memories are topped by the rant Keegan went on in a live TV interview sparked by comments by rival coach Alex Ferguson.

The cracking of Keegan’s voice as he says “I would love it if we beat them, love it,” became so legendary it eclipses any statement Ferguson made in, a far more successful, career.

Newcastle United’s collapse that season and failure to win the league has been etched into the history of soccer in a manner more vivid than anything which preceded it.

The glorious failure gave the club a storyline far more compelling than teams like Arsenal and Chelsea managed, even though they actually picked up trophies.

And it is that sense of ‘what if?’ Which hung in the air at St James’ Park ever since.

The modern Newcastle United has been understood through the prism of unfulfilled potential from that season.

When Newcastle United’s new ownership does eventually deliver what Kevin Keegan’s team of the 1990s couldn’t, we should remember it is unlikely to have ever happened if they hadn’t come so close.