Newcastle not yet an evil-empire side but cup final feels like a springboard | Jonathan Liew

Some of Eddie Howe’s team are not likely to stay for much longer but Saudi fortune should see them continue to improve

Trafalgar Square, Saturday evening. White smoke against a red sunset, the hot breath of a thousand singing voices wafting into the cold London air like pissed little doves. Wembley is still a day, a three-zone Oyster card journey and several cans away. But in a way, the 2023 League Cup final has already been under way for several hours.

They’ve braved the trains, the traffic and London prices. Whole towns have emptied for the weekend. Sam Fender and his band have come along for the party, and pump out a raucous version of Local Hero. Everyone wants a piece of this. And of course the game still means everything. But somehow there is also a larger undertaking here, the idea that what matters above all is their presence: a reclamation of turf, an assertion of self. We can win or we can lose. But either way, you will notice us again.

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