Newcastle United risked a huge amount of fan backlash last week when it emerged that the club were open to selling Anthony Gordon to Liverpool to help them to comply with PSR.
Things were bad enough when Newcastle had to sell promising youngsters Yankuba Minteh and Elliot Anderson in order to bring the club's finances back in line with PSR, but it was almost so much more terrible as reports came out that Liverpool were after Anthony Gordon.
It got even worse than that when it was confirmed that Newcastle were actually considering it and that Gordon himself was apparently really keen on the move having grown up a Liverpool fan despite coming through the Everton academy.
Anthony Gordon was Newcastle's Player of the Year last season after barely putting a foot wrong throughout the entire campaign and the thought of losing him to Liverpool would have tipped many fans over the edge, myself included.
Thankfully Newcastle were eventually able to raise the funds they needed by shipping Minteh and Anderson and agreeing a fee for Dan Ashworth with Manchester United.
However, The Athletic has confirmed that the Magpies came close to letting one of their biggest assets leave the club.
It does sound like Liverpool wouldn't have grabbed themselves an easy deal, though, despite Newcastle's fragile position.
One of the many problems with the current PSR system is that other clubs know when you're struggling for money and will seek to take full advantage by trying to grab themselves a bargain.
That's clearly what Liverpool were trying to do after Newcastle told them it would take at least £80million to take Gordon away from Newcastle or as The Athletic put it "far more than double the £40million that brought him north from Everton in January last year."
So while it was a near miss that could bite us in the arse with claims that Gordon's head has been turned, it's reassuring to know that even with our backs to the wall, our board will not be bullied into deals if they don't feel they reflect a fair value.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
14 | 18 | 35 |
2 |
Chelsea
|
15 | 17 | 31 |
3 |
Arsenal
|
15 | 14 | 29 |
4 |
Manchester City
|
15 | 6 | 27 |
5 |
Nottingham Forest
|
15 | 1 | 25 |
6 |
Aston Villa
|
15 | 0 | 25 |
7 |
Brighton
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
8 |
Bournemouth
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
9 |
Brentford
|
15 | 3 | 23 |
10 |
Fulham
|
15 | 2 | 23 |
11 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
15 | 12 | 20 |
12 |
Newcastle United
|
15 | -2 | 20 |
13 |
Manchester United
|
15 | 1 | 19 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
15 | -8 | 18 |
15 |
Everton
|
14 | -7 | 14 |
16 |
Leicester
|
15 | -9 | 14 |
17 |
Crystal Palace
|
15 | -6 | 13 |
18 |
Ipswich
|
15 | -13 | 9 |
19 |
Wolves
|
15 | -15 | 9 |
20 |
Southampton
|
15 | -20 | 5 |