Newcastle United icon Les Ferdinand believes Eddie Howe and his side can still call this season a success even if they ultimately miss out on Champions League qualification.
The Premier League being awarded a fifth spot in the competition for next season has done little to make the race for UEFA’s most prestigious competition any less tense.
Just two points separate third-placed Newcastle from Nottingham Forest in 6th with only four games left to play for the majority of the sides in the running.
Les Ferdinand: League Cup win enough to satisfy Newcastle United fans
Forest could overtake Newcastle, Manchester City and Chelsea to return to third if they beat Brentford on Thursday evening, while a draw would put them into fifth at Chelsea’s expense.
With Aston Villa also lurking just three points behind Chelsea and Forest, a couple of teams are naturally going to end up disappointed.
But former Magpies centre-forward and 1996 PFA Player of the Year Ferdinand feels that Newcastle fans will still come away from the 2024/25 campaign content with their side’s efforts even if they fall short of clinching a Champions League place.
March’s League Cup final victory over Liverpool marked the first time in 70 years that Newcastle had laid their hands on a domestic trophy, sparking wild celebrations from fans.
Speaking to Betway about his former club’s Champions League prospects Ferdinand said: “I think in terms of progress for the football club, it would be brilliant
“But as I said at the start, if they’d have finished tenth and won the Carabao Cup, everyone would have seen it as a successful season.
The main benefit for Newcastle, Ferdinand accurately believes, would be the boost to the club’s finances and prestige would earn from returning to Europe’s top table for the second time in three seasons.
That could well prove decisive not just in helping them bring in new recruits, but could help convince key players like Alexander Isak – ranked at no.2 in FourFourTwo’s list of the best strikers in the world right now – from pursuing a move away.
Ferdinand, ranked at no.76 in FourFourTwo’s list of the greatest Premier League players of all time, said: “For me, qualifying for the Champions League – in terms of how they want to progress and talking about keeping Isak and so on and to attract the players you want to be able to attract – it will be a massive thing for them.
“But I don’t think any of the supporters will think this season has been a disaster if they don’t [qualify].”
