Put the passports away - Manchester United have the last laugh this season as they deny NUFC European football

Manchester City opted to play like Sheffield United for much of the FA Cup final at Wembley allowing Manchester United to seal a 2-1 victory, claim a trophy and deny Newcastle United their route into the Europa Conference League.

This is what happens when you have to rely on other teams for your success.

And right there is the crux of the matter. Newcastle can't really complain too much because at the end of the day, we didn't do enough to qualify for Europe on our own merits, allowing Chelsea to steam ahead of us in the Premier League and nab the last available European spot.

Realistically, though, given all we've been through this season, the fact that we even got to the point of still having a European dream after the end of the league season is nothing short of miraculous.

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This season has been a nightmare at times but there has been good moments too

I said before the season started that I felt we overachieved last season and those big teams that underachieved would come back into it this year, so I'd be happy with a top-eight finish. We achieved that, despite all of the issues we faced with injuries.

Our cup draws were shocking too but we still made it to an FA Cup quarter-final and, even though we finished bottom of our Champions League Group, we could have qualified from it were it not for a dodgy VAR decision in Paris.

This season is now mercifully behind us. We have little to show for it bar some great memories of the 4-1 Champions League win over PSG, an 8-0 pasting of Sheffield United and plenty of other big results that offset the pain of waking up every morning and reading about another first-team player picking up an injury.

It's not all bad news - unless you're Paul Dummett or Matt Ritchie

There's also a silver lining to this cloud - it's very unlikely that Eddie Howe will now offer new contracts to Paul Dummett and Matt Ritchie meaning we can finally start to move forward as a club without hanging on to relics of the past for sentimental reasons.

Dummy and Ritchie, we love you, we thank you, but it's time to move on. Matt, if you fancy sticking around as a coach, we'd be fine with that.

Good riddance to the 2023/24 season and lets start building towards an awesome 2024/25 season.