‘Some player’… Declan Rice wowed by £40m Newcastle star during international break

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It would be fair to say that Newcastle United have not improved since last season.

Indeed, even the most optimistic Newcastle fan would surely admit that this season has offered something of a reality check. Rotten luck on the injury front clearly hasn’t helped matters but not many of last summer’s signings have worked out just yet.

While Newcastle could hardly have planned for Sandro Tonali’s ban from football and a freakish injury sustained by Harvey Barnes, such unfortunate events have meant that the club haven’t been able to build on last season.

Lewis Hall, meanwhile, is not yet deemed defensively ready enough for regular Premier League action. In fact, the only summer addition to have actually improved the squad (so far at least) is the excellent Tino Livramento.

So then, it’s lucky that Eddie Howe has yielded an improvement out of Anthony Gordon.

The winger has put a difficult start to life at St James’ Park behind him following a £40m move from Everton in January 2023 and was rewarded for his fine form at club level with his England debut on Saturday night.

Though that resulted in a defeat to Brazil at Wembley, Gareth Southgate seemed pleased enough with the 23-year-old.

And so it seems were some of his new international teammates.

Anthony Gordon: Declan Rice delivers verdict on Newcastle star’s England debut

Arsenal’s Declan Rice has quickly established himself as one of England’s most important players and seems a certain to start at Euro 2024.

Though Gordon is surely not in that territory yet, the midfielder was impressed with Gordon on Saturday night.

Gordon to took to Instagram to commemorate the achievement, writing: “A moment I’ve been dreaming about since I could kick a ball, an evening to remember. Another big game on Tuesday!”

Rice then responded with: “Some player! More to come my brother.”

Anthony Gordon: How did Newcastle star play on England debut?

According to WhoScored data, Gordon actually had the highest number of shots (4) and shots on target (2) from an England perspective. He was tied with Jude Bellingham for the highest number of dribbles (4) and no one in the England team made more tackles (3).

While it wasn’t the dream debut in terms of scoring the winning goal against Brazil, it’s clear Gordon performed well.

Rice was right to have been impressed.