The wealth of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has transformed Newcastle United, but the character of clubs is not changed overnight. Newcastle has not won any major trophy since 1969 and no domestic silverware since 1955. If the investment carries on as it has in the 18 months since the takeover, success will surely come, but it is not there yet: A 2–0 defeat to Manchester United in the League Cup final was a fourth cup final lost in the past half-century.
For Manchester United, this was its sixth League Cup and, perhaps, the most significant of those trophies. It was six years to the day since a United side managed by José Mourinho and inspired by Zlatan Ibrahimović beat Southampton in the final, which for a club of its stature and with its history is, in the modern game, a very long wait.
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Newcastle’s wait, though, is far longer. For its fans, a Cup final is potentially a once-in-a-lifetime event. Its fans came in the thousands Saturday, taking over Trafalgar Square in a boozy celebration of the club’s re-emergence as a major force. If there are any qualms about the ethics of their Saudi owners, they have been largely suppressed this weekend—even if certain journalists who have written about the dangers of sportswashing were verbally abused outside Wembley by fans unwilling to face the questionable source of their newfound wealth.
The League Cup can feel like an adornment for the superclubs, but it can have real significance, either for clubs like Swansea or Birmingham that are not used to success, or as a gateway to success for bigger sides. That is what Manchester United will hope this is. The improvement under Erik ten Hag this season has been remarkable. This was not a great United performance, but it was good enough and the difference from, say, the 4–0 defeat to Brentford in August is profound.
Under ten Hag, United has a structure and a resilience and, in Marcus Rashford, a forward in lethal form. The second goal was ultimately given as a Sven Botman own goal, but he was the architect and has scored 16 goals in his last 19 games. There is the sense of a club building to a much brighter future, although the situation is complicated by the probable sale of the club by the Glazer family. As a Qatari bid competes with Sir Jim Ratcliffe (leaving Manchester United perhaps facing the same ethical questions that Newcastle largely try to ignore), there have been suggestions that the Glazers may offload only a minority stake: The chants of United fans made clear that they want the Glazers gone entirely. Nevertheless, the trajectory, for the first time since Sir Alex Ferguson left the club, is upward.
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To start, Newcastle looked the better side without really threatening Manchester United, but it was undone before halftime by two moments of great quality. Luke Shaw’s delivery from a 33rd-minute free kick was almost perfect and Casemiro, maintaining his excellent form, placed his header past Loris Karius.
There was perhaps a touch of fortune about the deflected second but the goal stemmed from Rashford’s run and his superb first touch as Wout Weghorst poked the ball through for him.
With Nick Pope suspended and Martin Dubravka cup-tied (oddly, having played for Manchester United while on loan there earlier in the competition, he gets a winners medal), Newcastle was forced to turn to Karius. The German goalkeeper’s reputation was ruined by two high-profile mistakes for Liverpool against Real Madrid in the 2018 Champions League final, even though it was later shown he had been concussed. Starting on Sunday, Karius hadn’t played a competitive game for two days shy of two years, and the consequent lack of sharpness was perhaps a factor in the second Manchester United goal as Rashford’s shot deflected off Botman and looped past his dive. In truth, though, Karius was a minor factor; it wasn’t because of him that the game was lost—and he made a couple of excellent saves to prevent Manchester United finding a third.
Newcastle, forced to attack, brought on Alexander Isak at halftime and went more direct, and there were long spells of pressure after halftime. In that sense, this was a far more competitive game than the last final Newcastle reached, against Manchester United in the FA Cup in 1999. But United dug in, got bodies in the way and held out without too many scares.
It was not perhaps a glorious final for Manchester United, not the sort of game its fans will watch back over and over, but it is none the less significant for that. These are two improving teams, but Manchester United, having started higher up, is perhaps a little further along its path up the mountain.
