Newcastle United were 19th in the Premier League with 11 points from 19 games at the turn of the year and went on to finish 11th with 49 points after Eddie Howe finally got the side firing on all cylinders.
Newcastle are chasing a strong top-half finish next season and hope to get into the Europa League, but Frank McAvennie has made a bold prediction about their chances of winning silverware.
He believes the Magpies could win a trophy in the next three years and will beat Arsenal to the punch, telling Football Insider: “I think Newcastle will win a trophy before Arsenal.
“I think it’s going to take another three years to fight for a trophy. To fight for Champions League it will take about four years.
“But they’re going to be on the hunt for Europa League and the top six, or the (Europa) Conference League and top seven. Nobody at Newcastle would’ve dreamt they would get Europe in the next couple of years, but they will.”
The last trophy Arsenal won was the 2019/20 FA Cup. It’s the only silverware they’ve claimed since 2017. Newcastle were eliminated from the FA Cup at the third round stage last season and have reached the quarter-finals only once since 2006, but things could change under Howe.
Not only are Newcastle building a strong squad with highly-rated talent, their form in 2022 has been on par with the Premier League giants – only Liverpool (51), Manchester City (43) and Tottenham Hotspur (41) picked up more points than the Magpies (38).
So there’s every chance they could be competitive in the domestic cups next season.
In other news, Gabriel Agbonlahor hails Sven Botman as a ‘great signing’
