This year more than any other the Carabao Cup is not the Mickey Mouse cup… just ask the four desperate semi-finalists
This year more than any other the Carabao Cup is not the Mickey Mouse cup… just ask the four desperate semi-finalists
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FOR many years, it was the after-thought competition. A cup that nobody really cared about. An opportunity to give the reserves an autumn run-out. And the prime candidate to be the first on the chopping board if something had to give in the increasingly crowded calendar.
![[For years the Carabao Cup was something of an afterthought - but in 2025 it means the world to the four desperate clubs still standing]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/liverpool-fc-team-celebrate-trophy-882284885.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Yet this week, for all four clubs and managers involved in the Carabao Cup semi-finals, it is not just important - it is vital. The chance to exorcise a 50-year-old ghost, prove words of promise have merit and substance, set down a marker or show the challenge for bigger prizes is a real one.
![[Can Ange Postecoglou be the man to finally end Spurs' 17-year trophy drought]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/120-images-no-video-emulation-961464309.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
It means, too, that none of Eddie Howe, Ange Postecoglou, Arne Slot or Mikel Arteta will be thinking of taking anything lightly or resting their best players for future encounters. This matters far too much for that. For Howe and Postecoglou, in particular, the pressures from outside their in-house environment are huge.
![[Mikel Arteta is keen to finally win a trophy in front of fans following the behind-closed-doors and largely forgotten 2020 FA Cup final]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/mikel-arteta-manager-arsenal-applauds-961528306_e39ef5.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
The Toon boss does not need telling that EVERY Newcastle fan craves silverware - especially as the majority of them were not even alive the last time the club won a trophy. Indeed, even that trophy - the 1969 Inter City Fairs Cup, earned by a 6-2 aggregate final victory over Hungarians Ujpest Dozsa - is no longer viewed by Uefa as being a “real” one, with the European governing body only recognising its successor competition, the Uefa Cup.
![[Arne Slot will be keen to lay down a marker with the first available trophy in 2024-25]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/epa11807544-liverpools-manager-arne-slot-961719758.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
FOOTBALL FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS. On five occasions since then, the Toon Army has travelled to Wembley desperately hoping to see history made. And on all five occasions, the latest in 2023 when Newcastle lost to give Erik ten Hag his Manchester United false dawn, they have marched back to the North East beaten and bedraggled.
![[Eddie Howe is under pressure to finally win Newcastle their first trophy since the 1960s]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/newcastle-uniteds-manager-eddie-howe-961482304.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
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