Newcastle United officials nearly did something unforgiveable with Anthony Gordon in their time of need.
The Magpies ended June in a desperate situation, scrambling to sell players to comply with PSR and avoid a points deduction.
The hope is that they have done exactly that, with Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh joining Nottingham Forest and Brighton respectively. Two extremely talented youngsters were effectively sacrificed, ensuring that Newcastle did not need to sell one of their major stars.
But that is something they were worryingly forced to consider.
What happened with Anthony Gordon
Earlier this summer, there were tentative rumours about Liverpool wanting to sign Anthony Gordon. They were played down, but came back in a big way ahead of the June 30th PSR deadline.
The Athletic have reported that Newcastle actually proposed selling Gordon to Liverpool last month, only for the Reds to decline the approach. They report that Liverpool felt Newcastle wanted too much money, while they did not want to let Jarrell Quansah move in the opposite direction, which is what the Magpies suggested.
The PSR deadline passed with Gordon still a Newcastle United player, but talk of a move to Liverpool has created concern over his future on Tyneside.
There are reportedly fears that his head has been turned by the chance to return to Merseyside, and now Newcastle are preparing to show him some love when he returns for pre-season in the hope that he will forget about taking his talents to Anfield.
How Newcastle United now feel about Gordon’s future
According to the Athletic, Newcastle United are actually confident that Gordon will stay at St James’ Park this summer despite interest from Liverpool.
That is positive, as he is a major star who we cannot afford to lose. He is in the same bracket as Bruno Guimaraes and Alexander Isak, who have also attracted interest from elsewhere.
But it is worrying that Newcastle at least considered cashing in on Gordon, and it has led to a situation where the lure of Liverpool could be too big to ignore. Hopefully he does ignore it, but Gordon does have a history when it comes to forcing transfers…
In a perfect world, that will not happen on this occasion, and it appears that Newcastle are not expecting to lose the 23-year-old.
For now, Gordon can probably do without the distraction of club football. He has enough to focus on with England, as he prepares for Saturday’s Euro 2024 quarter final against Switzerland. Gordon will hope to feature, having been an unused substitute once again during the win over Slovakia.
Combine his England struggles with speculation over his future and falling off his bike and it has been a pretty wild few days for Anthony Gordon. No wonder his head is reportedly all over the place!
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