John Gibson speaks to The Mag after silverware returns to Tyneside – What an interview! | OneFootball

Newcastle United ended their long wait for a major domestic trophy on March 16 when they beat Liverpool 2-1 to win the League Cup.

It was an historic day for the club and its fans – one that hopefully heralds the start of a new era.

John Gibson is the renowned football columnist who has been a voice of the Toon for the Chronicle since 1966.

David Punton, writer for The Mag, has sat down with Gibbo to talk more about the club’s stunning League Cup triumph.

What were your first thoughts when the final whistle went at Wembley?

One of intense relief that such a long wait to see Newcastle United win another trophy was over. Relief and intense joy.

Then suddenly I had to bite my lip. I could feel tears swelling up in my eyes and thought ‘Geordie men don’t bubble!’ But it immediately struck me it was okay. To hell with it, I’d earned the right to show emotion like the rest of us and the tears trickled down my cheeks. I couldn’t have cared less!

In all your years covering Newcastle United where does that moment rank with some of the other highs you’ve seen?

Right up there at the peak of Everest. I’m no longer the world’s greatest authority on failure.

After five successive Wembley cup finals when I watched and reported on United losing, and often lose badly, and witnessed only one black and white goal, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Ta boys!

What was it like watching the drama unfold from the press box?

Fabulous, especially knowing how much it was sickening some southern based scribes and former players. Honestly, after about ten minutes I had no doubt whatsoever. I knew this was to be our day. We absolutely demolished them. Even when Liverpool scored late on I didn’t panic. The scoreline flattered the reds, 3-0 would have been more accurate.

Where does the win leave Eddie Howe in the pantheon of Newcastle greats?

If managers are judged by what they win – and how else are they going to be rated – then Eddie has just elbowed two fan favourites in Kevin Keegan and Bobby Robson out of the way. I loved both of them and will be forever grateful for the way they played and for bringing us Champions League football, but it’s still true they failed to win a trophy. Only Joe Harvey stands about Howe. He gained us our only European trophy amongst other lesser baubles. If Eddie sticks around as I expect and continues to win things he can end up the best.

What was the key to United’s stunning victory?

We wanted it more than them while Eddie Howe and his coaching staff tactically tucked up Arne Slot big time.

What would you say to the small number of southern based pundits who think we over celebrated the cup win?

It’s got nowt to do with you, mate, it was our day. After 56 years without any trophy and 70 years without a domestic cup, we have every right to have a party without your permission.

What needs to happen next in order for the club to build on this success? Can Eddie Howe win more cups?

United must have a good summer transfer window to give us the strength in depth to tackle Europe. The squad is painfully thin after three barren windows and couldn’t stand us playing on four different fronts. I was pleased the chairman was at Wembley to see what it meant to Geordies and encourage him to push out the financial boat. If he does that, of course Howe can win more cups.

Who were the three or four stand out Newcastle Utd players for you in that final?

Every player deserved a ten out of ten. Normally there are a couple of iffy performances in a win but not here. I felt our midfield three bullied their midfield which is normally Liverpool’s strength and the base for their success. I never saw Mo Salah because he was in Tino’s back pocket while Hollywood should forget about Wrexham, forget about Rocky, because that was fiction, and do a film about Dan Burn – from Asda trolley pusher to Wembley winner and an England cap at the age of 32. That is fantasy island stuff.

A few Liverpool fans seemed to think they just needed to turn up to get the cup – where did it go wrong for them?

That’s where it went wrong. Presume something will automatically happen because it is your right and you can guarantee that it won’t.

Is it far too soon to be talking about a statue for Eddie Howe?

Yes, there is plenty of time for that. I know Bobby Robson has a statue without winning a cup and Joe Harvey hasn’t having won a European prize which shows how knee jerk these things can be. I’m a great believer in waiting until a person’s career is over, at least at our club, before deciding if any lasting tribute should be made. You never know, if a couple of players hang around they might end up with a claim just like Howe.

Just sum for us those moments when the players went up them steps at Wembley and lifted the cup aloft?

I thought of those no longer with us who were good friends of mine… Wor Jackie, Joe Harvey, Sir Bobby, little Hibby, John Tudor and Tommy Cassidy and thought how proud they would have been. I raised a glass to them all later on.

Was the defeat to Manchester United the seed for the 2025 success, or do you think we should be greedy and say we ought to be talking about having won two league cups in three years?

Of course we ought to have two…Man U were a darned sight easier to beat than Liverpool. But hey we made it in the end and, yes, we unquestionably learned lessons from the last time. That’s what was important.

Is the cup win a good moment for the club to have a natural break point with some of the players on the periphery of things? Do some need to go over the summer with the best wishes of all?

They certainly do and we will hand out a big thanks to those who have done us proud. However, players cannot stick around forever and I feel in a couple of cases we have been too loyal. That was certainly so with Miggy. Top clubs, and we are one, need to be ruthless at times. Life has caught up with Man City because they were once single minded but had taken their eye off the ball. They won’t make that mistake again this summer.

I recently heard you saying the current squad are now heroes, but the next challenge is to become legends – can you explain more about what you meant?

Heroes are people who win a single battle, often against the odds, while legends win the war. In other words, use one major success as a springboard to many others.

Back in October (2024) you were kind enough to do an interview for The Mag, we asked you then; ‘If somebody had told you back then, that 55 years later Newcastle United would still be waiting for their next trophy, what would you have said to them?’ Your answer was “You’re a slate short of a full roof!” Are we now going to be getting all those holes fixed in the roof and plenty slates coming our way…?

I hope so. No I think so. No, I know so.

This cannot be a one off. It is the start of something big and not before time.

Does waiting 56 years for you to see this latest trophy, make it more special than those 1950s FA Cup wins that you experienced as a kid and the Fairs Cup triumph you witnessed in your early working life?

I think so yes.

I was a bairn at school in the fifties and after three successes in five years I thought NUFC winning things was automatic, while when we won the Fairs Cup in Budapest we were already 3-0 up from the first leg and so I expected us to triumph (mind two-nil down at half-time was a bit of a shocker).

However, here the whole country expected us to lose, especially with three top players missing. Only Geordies thought differently. We kept the faith.

Do you think in some ways that it was almost as important how Newcastle won this final, dominating Liverpool throughout, as it was to actually win the trophy? In terms of how it has left our enemies with nowhere to turn when it comes to them trying to downplay the trophy win? Laying down a marker for the future…Likewise, the fact that winning this silverware came about by winning five matches against the top four in the Premier League – Liverpool, Arsenal (x2), Forest and Chelsea?

To be truthful through all those barren years I would have taken a trophy won through an own goal in the 89th minute I was that desperate, but to do it this way was extra special. The perfect way to achieve your dreams. KK desperately wanted to do that when we led Man U by 12 points for the PL title during the Entertainers days. He wanted to lift the title with an all out attacking team not like the old chant ‘One-nil to the Arsenal.’ It killed him when we didn’t but this time it was done the right way.

And, sure, we fluked the Carabao Cup didn’t we beating the top four sides in the PL to do it.

In that October interview, we asked you which five United games stood out in your memory and you said Barcelona 3-2, Ujpest Dozsa 2 Newcastle 3, United 4 Paris Saint Germain 1, Newcastle 5 Man United 0, and Newcastle 4 Arsenal 4 in Feb of 2011. What would your top five be now, where would the 2-1 final against Liverpool fit in and also, what about the 4-0 aggregate win over Arsenal in the semis?

My top five now? Liverpool 2-1, Barca, Ujpest, PSG, and Arsenal in the semis.

Which of the current players, if any, would get in your all-time Newcastle United eleven that you have seen play?

Great question, but as I’ve said I like to judge a player’s career with NUFC when it is over because only then do we know their record, impact, loyalty, and longevity. There are a few in with a shout if they keep going…Isak, Tonali, Big Joe. And who knows, long term Tino and Hall.

Since the final whistle went at Wembley on this Carabao Cup win, which conversations stand out for you that you’ve had with anybody? Something special that has been said, maybe somebody special who you were talking to, maybe special emotion?

Conversing with SuperMac I guess. He is a special friend, I was best man at his wedding. However, he has been housebound waiting for an op and has never got to SJP this season, which means he has missed out on everything. We normally sit together in the Press box. Malcolm watched the final at home in North Shields on the telly when so many other old players were at Wembley. Afterwards he texted me to say: “wonderful day and wonderful performance. It made my heart soar.”

Remember he was in Newcastle’s side the last time they played Liverpool in a Wembley final, the FA Cup in 1974.

With the position United have now got themselves into, would it in any way feel a disappointing season if they don’t go on to get Champions League qualification?

Sure, it would be a huge shame for many, many reasons – financial and emotionally remembering Paris St Germain – especially now five PL clubs will be admitted next season but remember we’re going to be in Europe anyway.

However, winning a trophy and qualifying for the Champions League would be some double!

I think it must have been.

One of our own bigger than Grey’s Monument nutting in a pearler.

Journalists and pundits were saying that the whole of Newcastle had turned up for the victory parade and Town Moor event, as it was reported there were 300,000 Newcastle fans there, with those journalists/pundits quoting a Newcastle Upon Tyne population of 300,000. Do you think that sums up the ignorance of those outside the area who don’t realise how massive Newcastle United are as a club, with the Tyneside conurbation having a population of more like a million, then another couple of million in the region with many of them also supporting NUFC. Plus of course a million or more Geordies who moved away for work and their descendants, as well as those mad people from elsewhere who over the years have chosen to support Newcastle United despite no family or geographical connections?

The simple answer is one word: YES!

But they can say what they like. We know better.

Everyone was ready to gush that we are the best supporters in the world when we knew our place as the biggest losers. The moment we get some success it sticks in the craw. What a shame.