What winning the Carabao Cup means for Man Utd | The Promised Land
The first trophy of the Erik ten Hag era was won by Manchester United on Sunday evening, as the Red Devils saw off Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup final.
Goals from Casemiro and in-form Marcus Rashford in the first half were enough for the Red Devils as they claim the first meaningful trophy of the domestic season.
So, what does winning the Carabao Cup mean for Man Utd? Are they back?
90min's 'The Promised Land' podcast answered those questions in the post-Carabao Cup final episode.
On this edition of The Promised Land, part of the 90min podcast network, Scott Saunders and Rob Blanchette discuss Manchester United winning their first trophy under Erik ten Hag.
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Scott Saunders: I don't think Man Utd are 'back' yet, I don't think they're going to be 'back' until they win the Premier League, that's when they're officially 'back'. But I'm just starting to feel like that air of confidence and certainty that the team will get the job done is starting to return.
I never thought that United would lose to Barcelona, even when they went 1-0 down on Thursday, and never thought that - even though Newcastle were probably on top for most of the game - that Newcastle were ever going to win that game.
That's the difference for me.
The evolution of this team in the space of just a few months is remarkable.
Rob Blanchette: The show is called 'The Promised Land' and it's called that because it's all about Man Utd trying to return to the promised land.
It's feels like it's all on now. There's four trophies that Man Utd can win this season, we've won one of them now, why can't they win the other three? It's all about trying to win them and being valid every week.
Gary Neville said that after they won the League Cup in 2006 that he started to think 'can we kick on now?', 'can we get back to winning titles?' They had Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney coming through at the same time and then it all started to build, and United got back to where they wanted to be.
I liken it to 1990, and the final against Crystal Palace. Up to that point Man Utd had been perennial losers for years, I'd grown up being told that Man Utd do not win things. Winning that first trophy rebooted everything, and in the following year we beat Barcelona in the Cup Winners' Cup, and it was all these progressive steps. We nearly won the titles against Leeds, then Eric Cantona arrived and we won the league. That was a three-year changing of the guard.
I feel that this is the start of that period again for Man Utd.