Are Newcastle United cursed? It is a genuine question. Are they the most unlucky team in the country, a club destined to suffer ill fate that will forever trap them in trophyless purgatory?
If you have finished sniggering – or groaning if you are a Newcastle supporter – it is worth pausing for a moment to reflect ahead of their Carabao Cup final against Liverpool where the club have experienced injuries and suspensions to key players.
There is a story, quite possibly an urban myth, but a tale that has permeated conversations on Tyneside for decades. It goes like this, shortly after Newcastle had won the FA Cup for the third time in five years in 1955, confirming their status as one of the most successful clubs in the country, a group of travellers pitched up at the club’s Benwell training ground and made themselves at home.
The group were swiftly, but forcibly, ejected from the training ground, vowing revenge. A gipsy curse was made, condemning Newcastle to forever fail in their quest for silverware. Newcastle have not won a domestic trophy since.
For those who believe in such things, a gipsy curse is a powerful thing, not to be trifled with. Nobody actually knows if the story is real, but it has taken on a life of its own and some have convinced themselves of its truth. Perhaps that is enough to make it so.
A club of Newcastle’s size and stature should not have gone 70 years without a domestic trophy and 56 since their last major piece of silverware, the Fairs Cup triumph of 1969. It surely defies logical thinking, it points to other, hidden powers at play. For the superstitious, Newcastle might just be the real Damned United.
After all, the club known as the Magpies – a bird synonymous with good and bad luck – have played in five cup finals since 1969 and lost them all. These include the 1998 FA Cup final against double winners Arsenal and treble winners Manchester United the following year. Newcastle will also play by far the best team in the country in Liverpool this time around.
Newcastle are also the only team in the history of the Premier League to throw away a 12-point lead at the top of the Premier League, when they were pipped to the title by Manchester United back in 1996.
They are the most infamous underachievers in the modern history of English football. They have made valiant failures their trademark.
There are other urban myths that play into this narrative, a claim that the final words of the club’s legendary Scottish striker Hughie Gallacher before he tragically committed suicide were “Newcastle United, you’re doomed. Abandon hope all ye who enter.” The story is almost certainly made up, according to Ged Clarke, the author of the book Newcastle United: Fifty Years of Hurt, but at moments like this, these urban myths can seem profound.
Indeed, during his brief and largely insipid spell as manager in the 1990s, Ruud Gullit once said: “There must be some sort of curse on this club. Everything is slipping out of my hands. Red cards, injuries, illness, suspensions. It’s all making it very difficult.”
There were even claims that Gullit recruited a witch doctor during his time at St James’ Park to try and lift the curse. If he did, it does not appear to have worked. Even one of the club’s most successful managers, Kevin Keegan, openly talked about “a jinx” preventing Newcastle being successful.
When these things are repeated often enough, they can become a self fulfilling prophecy. When I was at Newcastle University, I lived with a friend for almost six years, a diehard Newcastle United supporter who returned to our flat one day, took off his top and showed us the Newcastle United badge he had proudly got tattooed on his chest.
Peter Harvey was always banging on about the Newcastle curse, making such persuasive arguments, even I started to believe it long before I started covering the club as a football journalist.
Peter has since become a vicar and the Reverend Harvey has not seen anything in the years since to disprove his view.
“Absolutely cursed,” he replied when I asked him the question this week. “Would be good to compare Man City’s first three finals compared to ours after the takeover.
“Seeing what happened to Liverpool last night [Ibrahima Konaté not sent off in Liverpool’s 1-0 win compared to Tino Livramento penalised for handball in the area by VAR in Newcastle’s 1-1 draw in 2023] shows our PSG game in Paris as a great example of how things are different for different clubs.”
He was always like this, so it was good to know he had not changed, but he did add, as he should as the vicar of Ramsgate in Kent: “Theologically speaking. God will never give people over to their idols. The idol can never satisfy. So it’s actually a good thing.”
So, he has changed a bit, but remains as football obsessed as ever and will be supporting Newcastle next weekend. He just will not be asking for divine inspiration.
Which is a shame, perhaps. Especially after the week Newcastle manager Eddie Howe has endured.
When Newcastle were beaten by Manchester United in the Carabao Cup final two years ago, they were without their first choice goalkeeper Nick Pope, who slipped and fell outside of his area, handled the ball under pressure from Mohamed Salah and was suspended for the trip to Wembley.
Second-choice goalkeeper Martin Dubravka was cup tied after a short loan spell at Manchester United, when his only appearances had come in the early rounds of the same competition.
It meant third-choice Loris Karius, who had not played a first-team game for more than a year, was in goal in the final, conceding two goals in his only first-team appearance for the club.
Newcastle’s form before the cup final – in the season they unexpectedly finished in the top four to qualify for the Champions League – had also deserted them. It was their one sticky patch of the campaign, the defeat at Wembley part of a five-game winless run.
Howe will also have been cursing his bad luck this week. On Sunday, one of his best players, Anthony Gordon, was sent off for violent conduct, a petulant shove in the face of an opponent, and his three-game ban means he will miss the final.
On Tuesday, it was confirmed that another England international, Lewis Hall, requires an operation on his foot that will rule him out for the rest of the season. Newcastle had lost the entire left side of their strongest team in the space of 48 hours.
More bad news followed on Wednesday, when it emerged that Howe’s best centre-back, Sven Botman, also requires surgery on his knee, having made only five first-team appearances since returning from a cruciate injury on his other knee.
As for star striker Alexander Isak, he has been rested recently because of a slight groin problem and there are concerns over his match fitness too. As things stand, he is ok to play, but Newcastle are understandably wrapping him in cotton wool ahead of their trip to West Ham on Monday, their last game before the final.
There is, of course, another more rational view. Michael Martin of the True Faith fanzine has been waiting to see Newcastle win a trophy almost his entire life and has another assessment.
“I don’t think it is bad luck, it’s just us being a bit s---... there is a loser mentality at Newcastle United and it needs to change. We don’t want them to be canny lads who turn up at Wembley and lose, we want them to be cold hearted, ruthless winners. That is what Newcastle have lacked in cup finals, not luck.”
