Who replaces Newcastle as the trophyless kings: Spurs? Aston Villa? Oxford University?

It was a truly momentous day in English football on Sunday as an achingly long drought came to an end with a famous victory, ending what felt like a lifetime of pain, misery and relentless mickey-taking.

Yes, Rasmus Hojlund’s first goal in three months was a special moment, but it should also be noted Newcastle United won their first trophy for 56 years. You may have heard about it.

You know when someone is so bad at something, it’s almost awkward to laugh about it? Well, that was Newcastle and trophies. People didn’t really make fun of their silverware drought in the national discourse, certainly not like they do with Tottenham Hotspur. It had literally gone beyond a joke with Newcastle and entered the realm of pity.

Now that the 56-year wait is over thanks to their 2-1 Carabao Cup final victory over Liverpool at Wembley Stadium, nobody will talk about the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup ever again.

But who does the big-club-no-trophy baton now pass to in English football? Who has waited the longest to climb some steps and lift a silver cup aloft? And who do we envisage going on a Newcastle-style barren run in the coming years?

By major trophy, we’re talking about seven competitions; the English top flight, the FA Cup, the League Cup (currently sponsored by Carabao), the European Cup/Champions League, the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup/UEFA Cup/Europa League, the UEFA Conference League and we’ll throw in the defunct UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.

There are eight English clubs who have won a major trophy in the 2020s, none of whom are in drought territory. Newcastle haven’t won a trophy for, what, two days, while Liverpool (League Cup) and the Manchester clubs (City won the league, United won the FA Cup) won one in 2024.

West Ham ended a 43-year wait for silverware when they won the Conference League in 2023, Chelsea won the Champions League in 2021 and Leicester City beat them in the FA Cup the same year.

Arsenal are getting pretty thirsty, with their most recent trophy being the 2020 FA Cup, but for a genuine barren run of any note involving a big club, the first place to look is, yes, Spurs, whose last trophy was the 2008 League Cup.

Juande Ramos’ team beating Chelsea 2-1 at Wembley, thanks to Jonathan Woodgate’s winner in extra time, might feel like an eternity ago for Tottenham fans, but in Newcastle terms it is still pretty recent at just 17 years. For context, Salomon Kalou and Tom Huddlestone both featured that day, are aged 39 and 38 respectively and both only retired from the game last year.

Spurs have come close on a number of occasions since then, with three defeats in League Cup finals (2009, 2015 and 2021), a Champions League final loss against Liverpool in 2019 and a second-place finish in the Premier League in 2016-17. They may, of course, end the wait in just a couple of months if they can win this season’s Europa League, with a quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt to be played in April.

In terms of history, status, fanbases and top-flight and European pedigree, three massive English clubs have waited since the 1990s for a trophy; Aston Villa, Everton and Leeds United.

Villa’s last major trophy was the 1996 League Cup, secured after a 3-0 victory over Leeds in the final. Everton’s was the FA Cup final a year earlier when they beat Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United 1-0, while Leeds haven’t won anything since the 1991-92 English league title in the final season before it relaunched as the Premier League.

Villa, like Spurs, have an opportunity to finally win a trophy this season, or maybe even two, given they are in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup and the Champions League.

But speaking of the FA Cup, if we’re going to talk actual droughts, i.e. where there is no water to speak of, then this season’s competition has thrown up the possibility of an English club winning a major trophy for the first time ever.

Crystal Palace, Brighton & Hove Albion, Bournemouth and Fulham are all in the last eight of the FA Cup and none have ever won a major trophy. Palace (1990 and 2016), Brighton (1983) and Fulham (1975) have been runners-up in the competition, while Bournemouth have never even reached a semi-final before.

The quartet are four of just 10 current clubs in the top two divisions of English football to have never won a major honour, which shows how significant it would be should they triumph at Wembley in May. The other six are Brentford, Watford, Bristol City, Millwall, Hull City and Plymouth Argyle.

Of the other FA Cup quarter-finalists this season (not including the aforementioned Manchester City and Aston Villa), Nottingham Forest’s last major trophy came 35 years ago when they won the 1990 League Cup, while Preston North End’s last piece of silverware pre-dates rock and roll and the Second World War. It has been almost 87 years since they beat Huddersfield Town in the 1938 FA Cup final.

Other big clubs who have sizeable trophy cabinets but haven’t had to unlock the case for a while include Blackburn Rovers (23 years since the 2002 League Cup), Sheffield Wednesday (34 years since the 1991 League Cup), Wolverhampton Wanderers (45 years since the 1980 League Cup), Sunderland (52 years since the 1973 FA Cup) and West Bromwich Albion (57 years since the 1968 FA Cup).

Interestingly, that quintet haven’t endured a huge amount of near-misses to end their droughts, with a total of only six losing final appearances between them since they last won something and no second-placed finishes in the top flight.

The longest drought since winning a major trophy for any club currently in the top two divisions belongs to Sheffield United, who next month will mark a full century since they won the FA Cup in 1925.

Fred Tunstall scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory watched by 91,763 at Wembley, although how many Sheffield United fans were there is unclear given the fact that both clubs were only given 4,000 tickets each, making the modern-day FA look positively generous.

It should also be noted there are 19 clubs currently not in the Premier League and Championship who have won a major trophy (with this figure including teams that no longer exist).

The 19 includes Birmingham City (most recent trophy the 2011 League Cup), Huddersfield Town (1925-26 league title) and Bolton Wanderers (1958 FA Cup).

Bolton captain Nat Lofthouse lifts the FA Cup in 1958 after shaking hands with Prince Philip (Ron Burton/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Of this group, the club to have won a trophy the most recently is Wigan Athletic (2013 FA Cup) and the club to have done so least recently is Oxford University (1874 FA Cup).

So, to answer our original question, who has the Newcastle baton now? Who should take their place as the club we all pity/laugh at? Spurs? Villa? Oxford University?

Well, it’s probably not for us to say, we’ll let the national discourse naturally take shape, but we can surely all agree that 2025, with Newcastle winning a trophy and possibly a new/rare name on the FA Cup to follow, is a welcome break from the monotony of the same five clubs winning everything going.

And what next? Is a club unknowingly about to embark on a Newcastle-esque run without a trophy?

Luckily, The Athletic has seen into the future and can reveal that Manchester City, after ruining everyone’s fun by winning the 2025 FA Cup, are found guilty of all 115 charges and immediately relegated to the North West Counties Football League Division One North.

It takes 56 years for them to win another major trophy, the 2081 Esports Shield. AI has long wiped out the human race but City, managed by the hologram of James McAtee, beat Oxford University 2-0 in the final watched by 250 million tiny robots. And they still play Sweet Caroline at full time.

(Top photo: Stephen Pond — PA Images via Getty Images)