The defining image of the season that will never be forgotten at Newcastle may be Dan Burn powering his header into the Liverpool goal. Or Eddie Howe drenched in detritus of lager discards as the team celebrated the club’s first domestic trophy since 1955. Equally, it could be the 300,000 fans who greeted the squad on the Town Moor, an extraordinary display of civic passion.
None of these are likely to have made an impression on the fitness instructor Manahel al-Otaibi in Malaz prison, Riyadh, serving 11 years, some of it in solitary confinement, for opposing male guardianship and posting photos of herself on social media without wearing traditional abaya dress. For her friends, the abiding memory of the season will be Yasir al-Rumayyan, governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and chairman of the club, gleefully holding the Carabao Cup aloft at Wembley.
