This time last week Newcastle United were left wondering what was going to happen as the club were frantically trying to put together deals to comply with PSR.
The Magpies had to find around £60million in order to comply with PSR before the looming deadline and eventually ended up selling Yankuba Minteh to Brighton and Elliot Anderson to Nottingham Forest for a combined £68million, plus the release of Dan Ashworth was finally settled with Newcastle receiving anywhere between £7million and £12million depending where you get your information.
As part of that mad scramble, the club briefly considered selling Starboy Malfoy, Anthony Gordon to Liverpool, but the Reds were put off by the Magpies' asking price.
However, that clearly planted a seed and now Liverpool think they can strike up a deal for Gordon and the links refuse to go away.
There have been reports that Gordon's head has been turned by the idea and he's been talking about it in the England camp. If we needed any proof that the lad's head is a mess, we only have to look at those images of Gordon "listening" to Gareth Southgate's extra-time team talk last night during England's win over Switzerland. The lad is not a happy bunny, but that's more likely to be down to Southgate wasting his talent than anything at club level.
Indeed, journalist Ben Jacobs, has told Give Me Sport that he's hearing that Newcastle are "quite calm" about the whole situation.
“I think Newcastle feel quite calm about Anthony Gordon. They believe they've complied with PSR, we are still technically in what would be construed as a near miss period.
“And therefore, if any clubs do need a bit more money, they could try and do deals and then declare them in the previous financial year.
“But Newcastle got more than they needed under PSR, I'm told, because it was Minteh, it was Anderson, and it was no coincidence that the Dan Ashworth compensation, which is somewhere in the region of £7 million, also got done before the deadline.
“So Newcastle have brought in excess of £75 million in the space of 48 hours leading up to the financial deadline.
“And I'm told that's a little bit more than they needed, so I don't think that there'll be any urgency to sell, at this point, Anthony Gordon.”
We had heard something from our club insider that a deal for Gordon to Liverpool had already been done, but we have chosen to ignore that and we hope that it's just our source texting whilst under the influence.
The more likely scenario is that the club will pull Gordon aside when he returns to training to talk about the entire situation, and as Newcastle United tend to do in these situations, improve his contract as a gesture to get him to stay.
We know that Gordon has fallen in love with Newcastle, but we also know how ambitious he is and we know that he grew up as a Liverpool fan, so it really does feel like a coin toss as to which way this one will go until we hear something official from the player himself or the club on his behalf.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
10 | 13 | 25 |
2 |
Manchester City
|
10 | 10 | 23 |
3 |
Nottingham Forest
|
10 | 7 | 19 |
4 |
Chelsea
|
10 | 8 | 18 |
5 |
Arsenal
|
10 | 6 | 18 |
6 |
Aston Villa
|
10 | 2 | 18 |
7 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
10 | 11 | 16 |
8 |
Brighton
|
10 | 3 | 16 |
9 |
Fulham
|
10 | 1 | 15 |
10 |
Bournemouth
|
10 | 1 | 15 |
11 |
Newcastle United
|
10 | 0 | 15 |
12 |
Brentford
|
10 | -1 | 13 |
13 |
Manchester United
|
10 | -3 | 12 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
10 | -6 | 11 |
15 |
Leicester
|
10 | -4 | 10 |
16 |
Everton
|
10 | -7 | 9 |
17 |
Crystal Palace
|
10 | -5 | 7 |
18 |
Ipswich
|
10 | -11 | 5 |
19 |
Southampton
|
10 | -12 | 4 |
20 |
Wolves
|
10 | -13 | 3 |