Eddie Howe is confident that Anthony Gordon will stay at Newcastle and emphasised that, despite interest from Liverpool, the England winger remained an “integral” part of the club’s plans.
Although Howe’s future as manager is slightly opaque amid interest from England and a restructuring of Newcastle’s hierarchy, the 46‑year‑old is finalising preparations to take his squad to Japan this weekend.
It will be intriguing to see how Newcastle’s Saudi Arabian ownership reacts to Howe’s very publicly stated concerns about the new sporting director, Paul Mitchell, and performance director, James Bunce, potentially reducing his autonomy.
The comments, made last Friday at Newcastle’s Bavarian training camp, surprised directors. However the club’s UK-based executives are understood to be sanguine and, during ongoing discussions, are believed to have attempted to reassure Howe that he will not be reduced to a glorified first-team coach.
It is hoped that he, Mitchell and Bunce can bond during the trip to Tokyo. Gordon will not be on the flight because he is on an extended post-Euro 2024 holiday, but Howe said the winger would be greeted with open arms when he returns to Tyneside after the breakdown of a move to Liverpool last month.
“I’d welcome Anthony back with three arms if I had them,” Howe said. “He’s an integral part of what we’re doing.” Howe fought hard to keep Gordon as Newcastle scrambled to raise £60m to satisfy the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules before 30 June and avoid a potential points deduction.
The necessary cash was raised by selling the midfielder Elliot Anderson to Nottingham Forest and the winger Yankuba Minteh to Brighton but, at one point, it looked as if Newcastle might be forced to sell Gordon to Liverpool and a medical was pencilled in to take place in Leipzig, not far from England’s Euro 2024 base. The former Everton forward, a boyhood Liverpool fan, was believed to be excited by the idea of returning to Merseyside, with Newcastle insiders fearing his head had been turned.
Howe, though, seems confident he can ensure Gordon returns fully committed to Newcastle. “We’ve had no conversations over the summer where it has been fractious or negative. He’s always been the Anthony Gordon who has given absolutely everything to Newcastle and I want to make that clear to all our supporters.
“Anthony needs a bit of a break but by the time he comes back, he’ll be ready to go. He’s such an important player for us. We didn’t want to lose anybody. Why would we want to lose our best players? We fought really hard to make the right decisions but in those last few weeks it was very, very difficult.
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“It was a very difficult last couple of weeks of June. There was a lot of uncertainty and we didn’t know what was going to happen. The rules forced us to do things we didn’t want to do. I want to make that clear we didn’t want to sell any of the players we sold. Absolutely not. Why would we want to sell any of our promising young players? Elliot’s someone we’ve invested a lot of time in and it defied the inner feeling we all had associated with the club, it felt wrong.
“In the end it’s been as good as we could have hoped for in terms of us not being hit with a points deduction which was of, course, of paramount importance. But we need to make sure we’re not in that position again.”
Bunce’s installation is intended to help stem the flood of injuries which largely explain why Newcastle finished a slightly disappointing seventh last season and were without several key players in Bavaria. Howe faces a balancing act with Gordon, Kieran Trippier and Brazil’s Bruno Guimarães, who have been at international tournaments this summer and missed last week’s training camp.
“The biggest danger is, if you bring them back too early, that can really damage their season,” Howe said. “But we have a game looming very large against Southampton [the season opener on 17 August] that we have to get them ready for, so it’s a very delicate balance.”
Source: theguardian.com
