It would seem that the fates have been conspiring against Newcastle United, even before a ball is kicked in today’s Carabao Cup final.
First of all, their fans were told last week that the trains taking them back to Tyneside after the match would be dry. There will be no beer for the Geordies on the ole choo-choo home. And that’s a more than three-hour journey. It is a shocking affront to their dignity, in all fairness. To rub salt into the wound, the trains taking United fans back to Manchester will be awash with beer. Have the rail companies already decided which side is the more likely to be celebrating?
A second straw in the wind also involves a contrast in policies. Newcastle United have decided that if they win, there will be an open-top bus parade through the city on Tuesday. Now normally, as we know, talk of parades before the trophy is won generally doesn’t bode well for the winning of said trophy. Manchester United on the other hand have decided that if they win, there will be no parade. A mere League Cup does not warrant it; they will move onto the next item at hand, which will be a meeting with West Ham in the fifth round of the FA Cup on Wednesday. This kind of grounded pragmatism should be a worrying omen for those Newcastle fans who have not surrendered to the giddiness that has apparently swept across the Toon Army.
And then there is the small matter of United’s mojo. The team is galloping into big-time form; they have caught a wave that is getting stronger with every passing game; they have the scent of burgeoning confidence in their nostrils. The players are feeling it, the fans are feeling it, the manager is feeling it. Since losing to Arsenal’s late goal in the Premier League on January 22, United have played nine games in all competitions; they’ve won seven and drawn two.
The ninth match of that unbeaten streak came against Barcelona in the Europa League at Old Trafford on Thursday. At full-time, the old joint was rocking. Indeed it had been rocking for most of the second half. When Fred equalised in the 47th minute the crowd ignited and kept stoking the atmosphere thereafter. As the team stepped up a gear, they went up a gear too. It was a raucous night that harked back to the vintage days of Alex Ferguson, who of course was in his seat to witness it and who looked duly delighted at the final whistle.
Come the end of May it will be the 10th anniversary of the great Laird’s leaving. The decade spent wandering in the desert since then looked to be taking its toll on him, as well as everyone else emotionally invested in Manchester red. On Thursday night they were rolling back the years. United completed the comeback with Antony’s polished strike in the 73rd minute. It looked and it felt like a milestone win in the nascent regime of Erik ten Hag. There was a revivalist fervour in the air at full-time. The players strolled around the pitch afterwards, soaking up the acclaim and applauding those in the stands who were showering applause on them.
Bruno Fernandes was nabbed by BT Sport for a quick on-field interview. Asked about the noise that was reverberating around him, he immediately acknowledged that it had gone to another level to that which he’d previously experienced. “This is something different,” replied the captain, beholding the scene around him. The bond between crowd and team had just gotten stronger after this landmark result.
“You can feel it, between them and us, we have something special because they see that we are doing all we can to win games for them. Old Trafford was bouncing, that’s why we get the result. When we get the goal straight after the second half starts, you know they will be behind us, so it was just a matter of time to score the second goal.”
Well, it did not seem quite as inevitable as that, albeit that United were rampant during the third quarter. A Barcelona team that was top of La Liga, and that is managed by the artist still known as Xavi, was never going to capitulate, even in a house this hostile. It took a goal-line clearance by Raphael Varane in the 94th minute to prevent the tie from going to extra-time. Still, the home side did have the wind in their sails for most of that second half and generally looked the more likely to prevail.
Erik Ten Hag: Easiest period of his reign. Photo: PA Wire
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Erik Ten Hag: Easiest period of his reign. Photo: PA Wire
Obviously, it would be far too premature to stamp historic status on this result. Should Ten Hag go on to add a few chapters of his own to United’s glory story in the coming years, then the 2-1 win over Barca at Old Trafford will probably be deemed a significant turning point.
But the manager is in the earliest, and arguably the easiest, phase of his reign. There is typically a load of low-hanging fruit for any serious gaffer to harvest when he arrives cracking the whip at a failing institution. Like the American president’s first 100 days in office, his writ runs far and wide when there is a mess to be cleaned up and people are craving somebody with the authority to do so. The new boss has licence to shake up the dressing-room, the training ground, the coaches, the discipline, the tactics, the style, the food, the facilities — just about anything and everything in his orbit.
The Dutchman has reportedly been doing exactly that since he arrived in England last June. Given the mission he was on, Cristiano Ronaldo’s challenge to his authority last winter was not so much a test as a golden opportunity. It might have seemed like a major collision but in reality it was an easy win: there would be no downside to standing up to a player who was well past it, and there would be a big upside to getting rid of someone with such a towering ego and reputation. The manager was always going to win this one, and to have his power consolidated by so doing.
Since then, and irrespective of the inevitable teething problems, Ten Hag has gone about building the squad he wants and shaping the way he wants them to play. He has acquired a world-elite talent in Casemiro and a proper dog of war in the Argentine defender Lisandro Martinez. These are players who can change the culture of a dressing-room as well as the game dynamics on a pitch. Everyone else, more or less, is rowing in behind the transformation.
One television interviewer on Thursday night was using a stronger word than transformation; he was calling it “the Ten Hag revolution”. The gaffer baulked at that line. But he couldn’t resist his own growing excitement either, with the adrenaline of the contest still flowing in his veins. “I don’t want to call it ‘the Ten Hag revolution’,” he replied, “but I think it’s definitely a big step for us, for our team, to get the belief that this team can win big games. And you now beat the number one [side] of La Liga ... Barcelona are eight points ahead of Real Madrid, so if you can beat them you can beat anyone.”
Which probably should mean that along with the cruel absence of beer on the trains home this evening, Geordie fans won’t have a parade to look forward to on Tuesday either.