Harry Redknapp has hailed Eddie Howe while blasting 'owners obsessed with foreign managers' ahead of today's Carabao Cup final clash between Liverpool and Newcastle.
The two sides will do battle at Wembley today with the first trophy of the season on the line.
Liverpool will be the favourites to go through given how sublime Arne Slot's team have been in the Premier League this term.
Newcastle can't be ruled out, however, with Howe steering them to a second cup final of his tenure.
Harry Redknapp has hailed Eddie Howe while blasting 'owners obsessed with foreign managers' ahead of today's Carabao Cup final clash between Liverpool and Newcastle
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The Englishman has worked wonders at St James' Park ever since being appointed as Steve Bruce's permanent replacement in November 2021.
And Redknapp, writing for The Sun, has now lavished praise on Howe - and Newcastle's decision to trust an English boss, rather than hiring one from overseas.
"When I won the FA Cup with Portsmouth in 2008, I never thought we would still be waiting for the next English manager to lift silverware," he said.
"But here we are, 17 years on, and still twiddling our thumbs, which is one of the reasons why I’d love to see Eddie Howe do so with Newcastle on Sunday at Wembley.
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"Much of that, of course, is down to the infatuation with overseas coaches, which I’ve never understood because we have so many good ones of our own.
"And Eddie is top of that list — I would go so far to say as the nailed-on certainty to follow Thomas Tuchel as the next England boss.
"Admittedly, the field doesn’t have as many runners as you’d have said back in the day — you can thank owners obsessed with foreign managers for that!
"But Eddie is different class and it would be great to see him win something with Toon before he moves on to even bigger things."
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Newcastle are set to play in their second Carabao Cup final under Eddie Howe as they prepare to face Liverpool at Wembley
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Newcastle previously made the final of the Carabao Cup in 2023.
However, they were beaten 2-0 by Manchester United following goals from Casemiro and Marcus Rashford.
Fast-forward to now, however, and Newcastle have evolved since then - with the Toon also flying high in the league.
And Howe wants his side to seize the day and make the most of such a glorious opportunity to win a trophy.
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"I think it's a real motivation for us to try and break that long time and that long wait that everyone's feeling," said the Newcastle boss.
"It should be inspiring for us - not a negative. I understand it will be a negative or a perceived negative for a lot of people, but we're trying to look at it the other way round.
"It's a chance to make history for us as a team - that's very rare in football. You get very few opportunities to do that, a chance to be remembered positively.
"I want the players to look at it that way, as I said earlier, to attack the game and to get a good representation of us."
Liverpool will start today's Carabao Cup final as the favourites as they prepare to do battle with Newcastle
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He continued: "I think the whole thing and this season's felt different in the sense that I think we've just gone about our business in a really calm, controlled way, professional way, we've had a really tough run of fixtures in the Carabao Cup.
"We've sort of just gone from round to round and now we've ended up in the final, there's been a lot less emotion. There's been a lot less noise I think outside.
"So hopefully that helps us in our performance in the game. You never quite know what effect that will have, but we've been very much focused on our build up and preparation and getting the game plan right."
