What Kevin Keegan used to tell Newcastle United players gives real hope after Yasir Al-Rumayyan claim

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Eddie Howe has done something that Kevin Keegan could not at Newcastle United.

While Kevin Keegan is a Newcastle United legend, he never won a trophy.

Eddie Howe has, with his Newcastle United team winning the Carabao Cup at Wembley. They beat Liverpool 2-1, with goals from Dan Burn and Alexander Isak bringing the Magpies’ trophy drought to an end.

The Newcastle United manager is now immortal on Tyneside. Howe is getting the Freedom of the City, while more accolades will comes his way. Alan Shearer wants Howe to get a statue in the future, and he certainly deserves one given the magnitude of his accomplishment.

But this will hopefully just be the beginning.

What Kevin Keegan told his Newcastle United players about winning trophies

Howe’s Newcastle team have succeeded where so many others failed.

That includes Kevin Keegan’s Entertainers, who came agonisingly close to lifting the Premier League title in 1996.

Keegan’s team are one of the most famous in Premier League history, but were never able to lift silverware.

It is the hardest thing to do in football, and former Toon defender Warren Barton admitted to the Athletic in 2020 that Keegan used to always tell them that the first trophy would be the most difficult.

“I always remember Keegan saying to us, ‘The hardest trophy to win is the first’,” he said.

“At Liverpool he won all those trophies (as a player), but the first one he found the hardest.

“And that’s what we found. We just could never get that first one.”

Eddie Howe is hungry for more at Newcastle United

Unfortunately for Warren Barton and the rest of his Newcastle teammates, that first trophy never arrived.

But it has for Eddie Howe’s side, and they will hope that Keegan’s words prove to be correct.

The drought is over. Now Newcastle United will hope that the floodgates will open and more silverware will arrive at St James’ Park.

That is the goal of the Newcastle United owners. PIF are not going to settle for just one trophy. After the final at Wembley, Yasir Al-Rumayyan told Newcastle fans this is just the first.

That is Howe’s hope too. While March 16th was an incredibly special moment in his career, it has been reported that winning the Carabao Cup has made Howe even hungrier for more success.

Newcastle United have got the hardest trophy out the way, and that will hopefully mean it is not another 70 years before they lift domestic silverware again.