There are those in this world who are trying to urinate on our cornflakes regarding the club’s achievement of getting to a major cup final for the first time this century.
Those who reel out the old notion that the Carabao Cup isn’t worth winning, it’s a mickey mouse cup and Premier League teams don’t try in that competition blah blah blah.
It is a sentiment recently echoed by TalkSPORT mouthpiece, Simon Jordan who, according to The Chronicle, recently said: “This is the fourth cup. This is the cup that no one really cares about. Premier League clubs are looking at the EFL Cup and not wanting to play in it anymore (and) it has been talked about being dropped.”
Of course, he then immediately backed down from that statement to sit on the fence, adding: “The other side of the argument is: it’s a cup final. It’s a major cup. It’s a cup that I’ve advocated keeping. I’m giving you both sides of the argument. I’m suggesting that it’s the cup most people value the least. If you talk to people like John Hall, with his view on things, he probably doesn’t think that the Carabao Cup is particularly valuable.
“Notwithstanding that, if you look at it and say ‘Newcastle have got to a cup final. If they win this, it’s a remarkable achievement because you know we were talking about a club that was so dysfunctional with its owner (Mike Ashley).”
Pick a lane, Simon, seriously.
It’s a ridiculous argument to make regarding the relevancy of a cup. We’ve all said we don’t like the competition when our team gets knocked out, it’s a way of coping with failure. But if the Carabao Cup wasn’t worth winning, then why did Manchester City win it four times in a row, why are Liverpool the recent holders? Why isn’t it someone from a lower division with little else to play for?
As Newcastle fans we took huge delight in mocking Sunderland fans for getting so worked up about going to Wembley for the Papa John’s Trophy final and the League One playoff final. But let’s be honest, if the shoe was on the other foot, we’d be celebrating too. It’s the occasion that matters, that feeling of seeing your side lift a trophy, regardless of what it is. Look at Jacob Murphy’s face when he lifted that Diriyah Season Cup that we won for winning a friendly game.
So anyone who tries to belittle this achievement is purely jealous that it’s us and not them and this is a hill I’m willing to die on.