Then, as the season gets closer to an end, you start to wonder: ‘Could we nip into Europe?’ That was our mentality.” “It wasn’t quite a free hit, but given the season we’d had prior… you look at first getting enough points on the board to stay up, then enough to finish in the top half. “We never felt an expectation to finish fourth,” he says. Watson, playing out of position at left-back, and marking Cristiano Ronaldo, remembers how Moyes took the pressure off. Peter Crouch scored the winner after 82 minutes, later calling it his best moment in football.Įverton’s equivalent moment in 2004-05 came against Manchester United, with a 1-0 win in late April virtually assuring the Merseyside club of the top four. Redknapp chose an attacking side, who dominated the game. You can’t pile the significance onto people.” Hermann Hreidarsson brought his Elvis outfit - he was an impersonator. I took the players to an Italian restaurant and we did some karaoke. “I remember before the FA Cup final (with Portsmouth). But you can’t say: ‘Everything depends on this’. “We just travelled up as normal, but we knew what was at stake. “It’s about taking the pressure off,” says Redknapp. Spurs had last played in the European Cup/Champions League in 1961-62 and City in 1968-69. At the end of 2009-10, Tottenham played Manchester City in what was effectively a winner-takes-all tie, the penultimate game of the Premier League season. Whether that’s a strange thing or not, I don’t know.”įor Redknapp’s Spurs side, the cup analogy was even more prescient. “Trying to push them into that place - it does feel like there’s a trophy at the end of it. That’s what Mr Lerner (Villa’s then-owner) wanted. “At Villa, the first year was working out where we were at, the second was trying to play some sort of European football, and the third was trying to reach the Champions League. “It was tantalisingly close,” he remembers. O’Neill, who almost took Aston Villa to the Champions League on three occasions, most notably in 2008-09, when they were fourth heading into the spring, still rues the missed opportunities. Their overperformance this year was unprecedented - with Howe also leading the side to the League Cup final. Internally, Newcastle had the target of a top-10 finish in 2022-23. Watson in action for Everton in 2004 (Photo: Neal Simpson/EMPICS via Getty Images) He believes Newcastle’s current team has echoes of both. Steve Watson played in two sides who achieved the feat - Everton in 2004-05 as well as Newcastle in 1996-97. With the run-in approaching its conclusion, this is the psychology of breaking into the top four - by those who have been there before. What are the best tools to motivate players? How difficult is it to avoid looking ahead? Will individuals worry about their role in the squad next season, should their side reach the next level? The vast resources of the traditional Big Six have meant the gap has felt chasmic at times over recent years - while there is also a psychological challenge. Eddie Howe’s side still face tricky home games against both Arsenal and Brighton & Hove Albion, while Liverpool - six points behind, having played one game more - are in their best form of the season. Before talk of jinxing their run - nothing is yet guaranteed. Brendan Rodgers finished fifth twice with Leicester in recent seasons, utilising a squad almost entirely different from the title-winning side of 2015-16.īut now, seven years since the feat was last achieved, Newcastle United look set to join those aforementioned teams. Alan Pardew’s Newcastle squad took Champions League qualification to the final day in 2011-12. Martin O’Neill’s Aston Villa team came sixth in three consecutive seasons (2007-08, 2008-10). The very next season, three years after their takeover by Abu Dhabi, Manchester City first cracked the big-time.Īnd finally, memorably, came Leicester City, and that magical run to the 2015-16 Premier League title. ![]() Tottenham Hotspur were next, wiping clean the stains of lasagne-gate to qualify for the Champions League at the end of the 2009-10 season under Harry Redknapp.
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