Ten Hag brings gifts and a serious, fizzing promise of Manchester United glory

F izz, froth, colour, and a hint of pulse-pumping vim. Welcome to Wembley Stadium, February 2023, a place where Thailand’s second-most popular energy drink is finally having its own on-brand midwinter moment.

There have been times during Carabao’s five-year title partnership when the final of English football’s second-tier domestic cup has felt a little flavourless, flat and lacking in gas. Manchester City won the first four titles of the Carabao era. Quadruple-chasing Liverpool pipped a mid-meltdown Chelsea on penalties to claim the last one. And for all the fun of the day itself this has felt like an incidental kind of glory: keenly fought on the day, but essentially a piece of housekeeping en route to some other more vital appointment.

Until now, that is. Sunday afternoon offers something else:an epic-feeling Carabou Carabao Cup final, a match with genuine significance for both teams, and around the edges a swirl of subplots and macro forces. Five years in, this thing has finally begun to fizz and spurt and pump the metabolism, to glow with its own migraine-inducingly vibrant colours.

Newcastle’s wait for a trophy is well documented: a long-suffering, reliably overplayed (oh stop it, the media) narrative of tender hopes and cruel denial, the Geordie Nation out there wandering the darkness like Arthurian knights in search of domestic knockout trophy Albion. But it has been almost six years for Manchester United too, the club’s longest trophy drought since the early 80s.

It matters for the players, too. As of Sunday’s 4.30pm kick-off only three likely starters from both teams – Marcus Rashford, David de Gea and Joe Willock – have actually won a major English domestic cup. Nobody here is travelling to Wembley to fill