Eddie Howe accepts Newcastle’s season could hinge on their Carabao Cup quarter-final against Brentford on Wednesday night. “I feel we can still grab the season and be very successful,” Howe said. “But games like this become pivotal to that. We can achieve great things but, likewise, the opposite can happen if we don’t have the right attitude to this game.”
Lifting the Carabao Cup would make Howe – a losing finalist against Manchester United in 2023 – the first English manager to secure the trophy since Steve McClaren at Middlesbrough in 2004. “That’s not so much in my thoughts,” he said. “It’s for Newcastle, trying to end this club’s wait for a trophy is the burning desire.”
Newcastle have not won a domestic cup competition since the FA Cup in 1955. “We want to be the team that gets over the line and achieves something special,” Howe said. “Nothing will be taken for granted but we know, if we can hit the correct levels of performance, we’re a match for anyone in the division.”
Howe’s team have been wildly inconsistent in recent weeks and the manager’s room for transfer market manoeuvre remains heavily restricted by the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules.
“I’d say PSR have had a dramatic effect on the speed of our journey,” said Howe, who has been tasked by the club’s Saudi Arabian ownership with hoovering up silverware and turning his side into European regulars. “Of course that reflects on our ability to change things as quickly as possible in terms of winning trophies.
“But if there isn’t a burning desire to win a trophy from me, then there’s something wrong. It’s what we’re here to do. I desperately want to win a trophy for this football club, for the supporters, for their patience and for the support I’ve had here. Nothing would please me more.”
Howe is aware that his team are eminently capable of underachieving, as they did in losing 4-2 at Brentford in the league this month. “We definitely want to perform much better than that,” he said.
“Brentford are a strong team from set plays, they’ve got good height in the team, have some dangerous players and they transition well. They’ve got various threats we need to nullify and, hopefully, we’ll do a better job.”
Should Newcastle progress to a two-legged semi-final in the new year Howe, who expects his spending power to be strictly limited in January, does not expect to be able to reinforce his squad with any loan signings. “The reality of loans is very difficult. Who is going to want to help us? Not many football clubs.”
