Image (cropped): fuboTV, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Anthony Gordon moved from Everton to Newcastle on the 29th of January 2023 for a fee of £45m. It was a very controversial transfer given Gordon had been with the Toffees since he was just 11 years old and had, at least at one stage, been a fan favourite. By the time of the move he had fallen out of love with the club, the fans had certainly turned against him, and all was far from well.
Everton needed the money to try and stay on the right side of Profit & Sustainability (PS) regulations but the fans were particularly unhappy with the fact he handed in a formal transfer request and then tried to engineer a move by failing to attend training. Players come and go, and life moves on, of course, and now Gordon is very much a Newcastle player, having made not far off half of his total career appearances for the club.
On Tuesday, it was announced that the attacking wide player had signed a contract extension. Somewhat strangely the length of the contract was not revealed with Newcastle just stating that it was “long-term”. In the summer he was linked with a move back to his home city and indeed his boyhood team, Liverpool. Once again, that potential transfer would have been motivated by financial concerns, with Newcastle struggling to balance fast growth and PS.
It didn’t happen and now, at least if you think a contract is worth the paper it’s printed on, the Liverpudlian looks set to stay at Newcastle for the foreseeable future. The powers that be are obviously happy with what he has produced, but has Gordon been a total and undoubted hit in the North East, or does he still have something to prove?
Gordon’s Time at Newcastle
At the time of writing the former Everton player has played 74 times for Newcastle and is in his third season with the club. He was eased into things after signing and made 16 appearances, all in the league, in 2022/23. However, since then he has been a real mainstay of the side. The following season he played in 35 league games and made 48 appearances in total. This term, to date, he has appeared in all eight league games and two EFL Cup clashes.
He is very much a trusted part of Eddie Howe’s team, typically playing on the left of a front three, though he can also operate more centrally or from the right. The Magpies have had injury issues to their strikers so he has played through the middle more often this term, a role he enjoyed with England’s Under 21s under Lee Carsley when they won the age-group Euros in 2023.
To date he has produced 15 goals and 11 assists, giving him 26 goal involvements in 74 matches. That means one every 2.85 games, with a goal every 4.93 on average. Those are promising stats, certainly, especially if we consider that in his first campaign with the club he only recorded a single goal in his 16 matches for Newcastle. Since establishing himself as a regular he has managed 14 goals in 58 clashes, so one every 4.14.
Now is the Time for Gordon to Prove Himself
It would probably be harsh to criticise Gordon’s performances since moving to Newcastle and most of the club’s fans, who were a little sceptical at first, have certainly been impressed by him. And of course, more importantly, he has done enough in the eyes of the management and board to warrant a contract extension.
Gordon is the sort of feisty, aggressive (he is a keen boxer) player who is loved by his own fans and often disliked by the supporters of other teams. Newcastle fans are keen on his work rate, his tackling and commitment to his defensive duties, his passion, and his will to win. Those are attributes not reflected by the simplest of offensive stats, goals and assists.
However, when you play in the forward line of a front three, and Howe almost always sets Newcastle up in a 4-3-3 formation, you have to be producing in terms of those simple – but all-important – metrics. Gordon is now entering an important time in his career, that age where one transitions from being a young player with promise, into a top footballer who delivers the goods.
He will turn 24 in February next year and should be entering the peak phase of his career now. Many players never quite make the leap and fully deliver on the promise they showed and Gordon will know there are examples of plenty of those even just at his former club. The likes of Ross Barkley, Jack Rodwell, Francis Jeffers and Michael Vaughan all played for England (Vaughan at U21 level only) without hitting the peaks that were predicted.
His stats with Newcastle are solid but unspectacular and this is the season where they need to continue trending upwards. Thus far they have not, despite some decent performances, but two goals and no assists from 10 matches is not enough.
And What of England?
Gordon has got seven full England caps after earning 16 for the U21 side. He scored six times with the age-group team but has yet to hit the net for the senior side. At Euro 2024 many fans were crying out for the width he would have offered on the left but for whatever reason it seemed that Gareth Southgate didn’t quite trust him, or rate him.
👏 @anthonygordon ❤️
— England (@England) March 24, 2024
Carsley is known to be a big fan and he started three of the four recent games under the interim boss. He was subbed in all three, though, and did not feature at all in the fourth. He looked dangerous at times but there was ultimately no end product and it will be interesting to see what plans incoming boss Thomas Tuchel has for him.