Newcastle United will be determined to show Anthony Gordon the love when he returns back to the club after warming the bench for England at Euro 2024.
The 23-year-old winger cut the figure of a very unhappy man during Gareth Southgate's extra-time team talk on Saturday as England needed penalties to see off the challenge from Switzerland. Gordon, who proved in his one minute of tournament football that he could give England that impetus they need to get forward, was once again an unused substitute.
While that's been going on in Germany, back in England, the former Everton man was practically offered up to Liverpool in a bid to comply with PSR before the July 1st deadline, and while nothing came of it, the idea that the board were even thinking about letting him go will definitely be messing with his head.
Not only that, but now Liverpool - Gordon's boyhood club - have been linked with a move for the England man every day since without fail, while the media keep throwing up names of other clubs too.
The Magpies have dug a hole for themselves by entertaining the notion of letting one of their star players go, whether it was to avoid a points deduction or not.
However, The Chronicle believes that the club will go all out make him feel welcome when he returns to the club and will give him a role as part of the team's senior leadership group which recently lost Paul Dummett and Matt Ritchie. There have also been talks over a new deal, which he will be pushing for as a sign of good faith if Gordon has any nous at all. Basically, Gordon has them over a barrel at the moment and could demand pretty much anything.
Hopefully, those gestures are enough to put all this behind them, but they could also give him his pick of squad number, hire him a butler, erect a statue of him outside the ground, just do whatever it takes.
If you watched Gordon's interview on The Overlap, you can tell he's definitely leadership material, he speaks so well, he's educated, methodical and ambitious. He may only be 23, but he's got to be on the list for Captain, never mind the leadership group.
Newcastle need to pull out all the stops to right this wrong as Gordon was phenomenal last season and still has room to get even better.
Far better he does that for us than he heads to Liverpool to do it for them.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
12 | 16 | 31 |
2 |
Manchester City
|
12 | 5 | 23 |
3 |
Chelsea
|
12 | 9 | 22 |
4 |
Arsenal
|
12 | 9 | 22 |
5 |
Brighton
|
12 | 5 | 22 |
6 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
12 | 14 | 19 |
7 |
Nottingham Forest
|
12 | 2 | 19 |
8 |
Aston Villa
|
12 | 0 | 19 |
9 |
Fulham
|
12 | 0 | 18 |
10 |
Newcastle United
|
12 | 0 | 18 |
11 |
Brentford
|
12 | 0 | 17 |
12 |
Manchester United
|
12 | 0 | 16 |
13 |
Bournemouth
|
12 | -1 | 15 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
12 | -4 | 15 |
15 |
Everton
|
12 | -7 | 11 |
16 |
Leicester
|
12 | -8 | 10 |
17 |
Wolves
|
12 | -8 | 9 |
18 |
Ipswich
|
12 | -10 | 9 |
19 |
Crystal Palace
|
12 | -7 | 8 |
20 |
Southampton
|
12 | -15 | 4 |