It’d be fair to say Anthony Gordon’s Newcastle career is yet to catch fire.
The £45m January signing scored just once in 16 games, albeit after arriving during some difficult circumstances.
Leaving boyhood club Everton under a cloud for a new team in a new city halfway through a season can hardly be easy.
Indeed, Eddie Howe has always pointed to this pre-season as the time in which the 22-year-old will find his feet at Newcastle.
Certainly, Gordon is gearing up for that. Crowned the Player of the Tournament as the England U21s won the European Championship at that level, he scored twice while registering one assist.
Still, not everyone was happy it seems…
Everton refuse to acknowledge Anthony Gordon after Euro 2023
Taking to social media after the Young Lions won the U21 Euros for the first time since 1984, Everton’s official Twitter account sent a message.
Naturally, they congratulated their representatives in the squad, James Garner and Jarrad Branthwaite.
Clearly not taking an active step to ignore at least some of their former players, the club also congratulated England U21 manager Lee Carsley, a former midfielder at Goodison Park.
Gordon, however, was a notable exception…
Gordon’s future is so exciting
Newcastle tracked Gordon last summer before eventually signing him in January, underlining their faith in him.
While his opening few months were difficult, he at least ended the season with a goal at Chelsea before embarking on quite the journey with the England U21s.
With Howe having yielded improvement from pretty much all of his squad, it’s going to be so exciting to see how Gordon develops.
The club clearly rate him given how long they chased his signature and to have time during pre-season to get up to speed all while coming off a career high tournament should, at least in theory, give him a major boost.
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