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Eddie Howe enjoys the end of Newcastle’s trophy hoodoo - Getty Images/Charlotte Wilson
This was a cup win that not only confirmed Eddie Howe is the greatest Newcastle United manager of the modern era, it suggests he is the best English one too.
In winning Newcastle’s first domestic trophy for seven decades; the trophy incidentally, he told the club’s board would be the first one he would target to win when he interviewed for the job in November 2021, Howe now stands head and shoulders above all those who came before him in the 70 years since the last of their FA Cup successes
Kevin Keegan did a wonderful job galvanising the club, breathing life into the corpse of a proud institution, but he could not win a trophy. As good as he was and as important a figure as he is in the club’s history, Howe has done better.
Sir Bobby Robson was the best English manager of his generation, also flirted with a Premier League title challenge and qualified Newcastle for the Champions League, but he could not end the long, painful wait for silverware either.
In the space of less than four years, Howe saved the club from relegation in his first season, qualified for the Champions League in his second, finished in the top seven in his third and won a major trophy in his fourth.
He has pulled off something truly stunning. It is an achievement that will echo through history. So many others have tried and failed to do what Howe has done and it means he has won as many trophies at Newcastle as Mikel Arteta has in more than five years at Arsenal.
Not since Harry Redknapp won the FA Cup with Portsmouth back in 2008 has an English manager lifted a trophy above his head at Wembley.
Given the work he did at Bournemouth, you can make a strong argument that not since Bobby Robson has this country produced anyone as good. In a Premier League flooded with more fashionable foreign coaches, Howe has become the poster boy for the home-grown. His rise from League Two to the Premier League was already a remarkable story, but this trophy proves he is not just good, he is great.
Howe is destined to manage England at some point. It would be a travesty if he did not. It might not be now, or even if Thomas Tuchel departs after the World Cup in 2026, but even if they have to wait a decade, the FA must give him the job when he is ready to take it.
It was too soon for him last summer. Howe told the FA, before it even asked if he was interested in replacing Gareth Southgate, that he wanted to stay in club football, but his time will come.
As for his status on Tyneside, the question now should be, when and where do you want your statue Eddie? They will build one for him after this. Maybe not this year or even the next, but they will have to. Just like the players who crushed Liverpool, Howe has achieved immortality.
Howe will hate that sort of talk and brushed off a question about it in an emotional post-match press conference. It possibly even offended him. “I don’t think about things like that, I focus every day on what I can do for Newcastle United, that will never change. I never look too far ahead.”
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Howe’s calmness amid the tumult of Newcastle United has helped him bring success to the cub at last - Reuters/Paul Childs
Howe often seems more uncomfortable with praise than he is at handling criticism. It is just one of the reasons this humble, hard-working, emotionally intelligent, utterly football-obsessed individual has thrived at St James’ when so many others have wilted. He has been the perfect manager at the perfect time for a club that has simply been too emotional; too intense and too difficult to handle for most of those who sat in the dugout before him.
This was no fluke. To reach the final Newcastle had to beat Chelsea and then Arsenal over two legs in the semi-final. They won all three of those games. In the final, they outplayed the best team in the country in Liverpool.
When Newcastle’s former co-owner Amanda Staveley said that Howe could become Newcastle United’s Sir Alex Ferguson, people scoffed at the comparison. It does not look silly anymore.
This was the squad Howe built with the financial backing of the new owners, he led recruitment as well as leading the team. The club would do well to remember that in the summer when they look at ways to refresh and improve it.
Howe is a special manager, but more importantly he was the ideal manager for Newcastle United at the ideal time. He has not only spent money to get them where they are, he has improved pretty much every player he inherited.
Newcastle are very lucky to have him and England are too. There will be other clubs, at home and abroad, who may look at the job Howe has done and wonder whether he could do the same for them too.
For now, none of that matters. All that mattered this weekend was that Newcastle won a trophy, ended the drought and sent their loyal fans home happy after a final for a change. That is precisely – as he promised when he took the job – what Howe has done.
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