So farewell, Anthony Gordon. Some would add: “And good riddance!”
Has there been another player in the Eddie Howe era who has prompted more disagreements among Newcastle United supporters? Probably not.
Even before Flash joined in January 2023 for a reported £40m plus £5m in performance-related fees, every fan seemed to have an opinion.
He was 26 days short of his 22nd birthday, had made 50 league and cup starts for Everton, scoring seven goals, and left his boyhood club on a sour note, with accusations of “downing tools” to force through the transfer.
The media were quick to reprint photos of confrontations with players who were suddenly his new teammates. It’s all part of the game. Some members of the Toon Army reckoned Gordon was an absolute pain in the derriere as an opponent but a great bloke to have in our team. Call it the bottom line . . .
He made his debut off the bench at St James’ Park on February 4, replacing Allan Saint-Maximin with 69 minutes on the clock. The result was a 1-1 draw, as was his next match a week later at Bournemouth, when he replaced Joe Willock after 36 minutes and collected the first yellow card of his Newcastle career.
Another second-half sub appearance, at home to Liverpool (when Nick Pope was sent off) saw Gordon taste defeat in black-and-white stripes for the first time.
Because he was cup-tied, there was no possibility of a Wembley appearance in the League Cup final on February 26. If only the competition rules had been rewritten at the start of that season, he might have given the Salfords a bit of bother.
On March 4 he started at the Etihad and lasted 62 minutes. We lost 2-0 but happier times were just around the corner as we avenged the Wembley defeat by thumping Man Utd 2-0 at St James’ Park. Gordon was given about 25 minutes that day, again replacing the mercurial French winger.
In all, Newcastle played seven Premier League matches that April and won six of them, marching forcefully towards qualification for the Champions League. Flash featured in all seven but started just twice; in the 3-0 defeat at Villa Park and the 3-1 victory against Southampton. Not that he had much reason to celebrate after the latter: he was subbed at half-time when we trailed the Saints. Callum Wilson, his replacement, bagged a brace to secure the points.
Some of our less-patient supporters were quick to ask WTF was going on with our expensive new recruit, especially when he was given less than an hour in total off the bench in the next four matches.
The curtain fell on a memorable club campaign at Stamford Bridge on May 28. Gordon showed his pace in scoring the opener on nine minutes to break his duck but Kieran Trippier levelled with an own-goal less than 20 minutes later. Gordon got 69 minutes.
To say the Scouser had made a flying start would be a gross exaggeration: 16 appearances, including four starts, one yellow, one goal. As my long-suffering old teachers often wrote: “Could do better!”
By the end of Howe’s first full season in charge the supporters had realised his preferred modus operandi was to introduce new recruits slowly but surely. Even Bruno Guimaraes, a year earlier, had waited weeks for his full debut, although the Brazilian midfielder hardly missed a beat once he started in the heart of the team.
There was no time for Gordon to rest once the 22/23 club season finished. He played a starring role for England under-21s in the European Championship, starting five of the six matches as Lee Carsley’s team lifted the trophy. Uefa’s Technical Observer panel named him Player of the Tournament. They said: “He played the whole tournament at a high level, scoring two goals and getting one assist.”
The Uefa wordsmiths noted Gordon was deployed as a central forward and responded by leading the line in a mobile fashion, playing a key part throughout as England won all six matches without conceding a goal to claim the title for the first time in 39 years. “I’m absolutely delighted,” he said. “I feel I have had a good tournament, but me with the individual trophy is down to my teammates and the staff. The squad is really unselfish. Six or seven of us might have won it, that shows how good we’ve been.”
The 23/24 season was packed with milestones for the bottle-blond flyer. Champions League debut, senior England debut, first penalty goal for Newcastle, first red card in black-and-white. He hit 12 club goals and collected 13 yellow cards. The promise shown at Everton and emphasised at the Euro under-21s was fulfilled in spectacular style. In a season severely hindered by injuries among his colleagues and the long suspension of Sandro Tonali, Gordon played in 35 Premier League matches, nearly all as a starter.
The £40m-plus fee looked excellent value. Newcastle were expecting to compete in the 24/25 edition of the Conference League after finishing the domestic season in seventh. Those plans were thwarted when the Salfords unexpectedly defeated their Mancunian neighbours in the FA Cup final. With hindsight, the Euro-free zone was a blessing in disguise for a squad short on depth and quality.
Gordon’s England debut, when Gareth Southgate started him against Brazil at Wembley, ended in a 1-0 defeat but there was no disguising the player’s emotions. “Tonight was the best day of my life,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live after the final whistle.
“I envisioned it a bit different with a win and a goal. I thought we were the better team but we lacked that cutting edge that they had at the end. This is my long-term dream I have had. To achieve it means everything to me.”
Southgate said Gordon had put in an “excellent” performance. The player himself, asked if there was anything he could do better, answered: “The chance in the first half with the volley, if I am being hard on myself, I would have liked to score it.”
Flash played in two further England friendlies before his competitive debut against Slovenia in the European Championships on June 25, when he replaced Phil Foden after 88 minutes.
The 24/25 season included 42 club games, with nine goals, and eight England caps from friendlies, the Nations League and the World Cup. On November 17 Gordon scored that eagerly awaited first international goal, against Ireland in a 5-0 Nations League romp.
At Wembley on March 16 he was a larger-than-life figure. The gigantic pre-match banners spread on the hallowed turf (which now includes a bit of plastic) featured stars from Newcastle United and Liverpool. Prominent on our banner was an image of Anthony Gordon.
Gordon had scored in both legs of the semi-final against Arsenal. Sadly for all concerned, he was then shown a straight red card in the FA Cup fifth-round match against Brighton for lashing out at Jan Paul van Hecke. Being banned from the biggest and best Newcastle United win since 1969 must have been an acute disappointment, especially as he thrives under the brightest spotlights.
He put on a brave face and his black-and-white top to join the post-match celebrations, thankfully without doing the full cringe-inducing John Terry act. The jubilant supporters, recognising his integral role in getting the team to a second League Cup final in three seasons, serenaded him with raucous “Oh! Anthony Gordon!” chants.
The red-card offence was petulant, the punishment harsh. Anthony Taylor had taken the Lady Brady line: “Firm but fair.” As Gordon examined his winner’s medal, I wondered what he was thinking. Ironically, he had appeared to be on the right track that season, collecting only four yellows compared with 13 in his first full season at St James’ Park. Would he learn? Or would he continue to react unwisely to provocation from opponents happy to wind him up, knowing he sometimes had a short fuse?
We didn’t have long to wait for the answer. At the start of what would prove to be his final season for Newcastle United, he was pressed into service as a central striker when Alexander Isak downed tools. A scoreless and almost incident-free match at Villa Park was followed by an explosive Monday night special against Liverpool.
Just before half-time, Flash raced across St James’ Park to pressure not one, not two but three opponents. Liverpool calmly let the ball do the work. Gordon was having none of it. Virgil van Dijk was the last of the three. He cleared the ball a split-second before Gordon crashed into the calf muscles of his standing leg, from behind, at full speed, studs first.
Remarkably, Simon Hooper showed the flying forward a yellow card. This was early in a season where leniency became the watchword for Premier League referees, with the VARs tending to go with the on-field decision. Gordon, however, is not Kai Havertz or Gabriel Magalhaes. He doesn’t play for Arsenal. Whereas they each escaped with a yellow for red-card offences a few weeks ago, Hooper was advised to view the incident on screen. Nobody was surprised when the booking was upgraded.
“I said to him, ‘If it’s not a sending off then I don’t understand football’,” Van Dijk told Sky Sports. “Unfortunately these things happen in football. If he meant it or not, it happened, we move on. That’s it.”
Howe defended his player, saying there was no malice in the challenge. “I thought there was no intent. People say it looks bad, I haven’t seen it again, I’ve seen a quick image of it, I thought he was trying to pull out of the tackle.”
One-nil down against the defending Premier League champions, 10-man Newcastle conceded a second immediately after the interval. Driven forward by our captain, we halved the deficit through Guimaraes himself on 57 minutes. Will Osula equalised on 88 and a remarkable victory looked possible. We all know what happened in stoppage time . . . It was the first but by no means the last late, late blow of 2025/26.
Events of August 25 turned out to be the club season in microcosm: lots of endeavour, few highlights, fleeting promise, ultimate disappointment.
Gordon made 51 appearances for United and England. There was a second international goal to go with 17 for his employer. That tally was boosted by an undoubted ability from 12 yards: no fewer than nine goals were penalties. Who will step up to the plate next season?
Ask Gordon to list his best game of 25/26 and he would probably suggest Qarabag away in the Champions League play-off round. Four first-half goals, including two pens, ensured what was expected to be a tricky challenger became anything but.
Depending on your standpoint, Gordon is either a player for the biggest stages or somebody who picks and chooses when to try his hardest. Perhaps they are two sides of the same coin.
This is what he said after a man-of-the-match performance in the 3-0 defeat of Benfica last October, when he scored the opener and set up Harvey Barnes for the second. “It brings the best out of me. The biggest games make me feel alive. I love playing at this level. It’s where I wanted to play as a kid so I’m living the dream.”
Jose Mourinho, the opposing manager, embraced him at full-time and said: “You’re too much.”
Is he the opposite of a flat-track bully? In 2023/24 he became only the second player, alongside Leicester City hero Jamie Vardy, to score against Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United in a single Premier League season. Five of the nine club goals he scored for Newcastle in 24/25, when we had no European matches, were against Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal.
By contrast, he didn’t score his first domestic goal of last season from open play until January 31.
When asked after the Benfica match to explain the apparent difference between his Premier League and Champions League displays, he joked that playing with the Uefa-approved ball might be why. “I haven’t got an answer for that, I wish I did. I’ve just got to take it game by game, approach every game the same. I don’t know what’s different.”
Howe said at the time: “I think there’s more to come from him. He looked in a really good place on Tuesday. He was direct, full of running. He produced an assist and a goal, and I was really pleased with his performance. The challenge for him and all the players is to produce it on a consistent basis because if he can, there are very few who can do what he can.”
Gordon was far from alone last season in failing to deliver. When Guimaraes is ending as our highest Premier League scorer with nine goals, one of the biggest problems, an inability to make and take chances, is bleedin’ obvious.
As I said earlier, our departing winger/striker is a divisive figure. For one friend, a long-term season-ticket holder whose opinions I respect, the tipping point was the second leg of the League Cup semi-final at the Etihad on Wednesday, March 4. Newcastle had already lost 2-0 at home in the first leg and, when we went five-down on aggregate after 31 minutes of the return, all hope seemed lost.
Was that what Gordon thought as he sat down shortly before half-time? The official version from Howe, post-match was: “It looks like a hamstring problem. I don’t quite know how bad it is but it was enough for him to come off so that’s a big worry.”
The unofficial version from my mate Paul, disgusted by what he had seen: “We were battered in the first half. Gordon goes down. He quite frankly didn’t fancy carrying on. A bloke near me was adamant he had bottled the challenge of getting back into the game.” They were by no means the only two travelling fans to express that opinion.
When a player has pace, ability and an eye for goal, then falls short, he will always be judged more strictly than less talented teammates. That’s why the aces in the pack earn the highest rewards.
Gordon missed the weekend Premier League match at home to Brentford three days later (another loss to a late goal) but returned for the trip to Tottenham on February 10, playing until the 88th minute of the 2-1 victory and providing the assist for the winning goal. Howe’s big worry had proved to be unfounded . . .
With the games coming every three or four days, Gordon was a substitute at Villa Park in the fourth round of the FA Cup, when 42,000 in the stadium and millions more watching on TV were treated to one of United’s best performances of the season despite the staggering incompetence of a referee unaided by VAR. Take a bow, Chris Kavanagh . . . We were 1-0 down to an offside goal but playing against 10 men. Gordon joined the fray for the final half-hour as justice was finally done in a 3-1 win.
Then came the personal triumph in Azerbaijan as the twice-a-week schedule continued until the defeat by Sunderland on March 22. Nobody knew that day the goal he scored to put us ahead on 10 minutes would be his last for United.
In all, he started 118 competitive matches for Newcastle United, made 34 substitute appearances and totalled 39 goals in four competitions.
On March 31 Thomas Tuchel selected him to start against Japan. England lost to a first-half goal and Gordon was replaced by Marcus Rashford on 71 minutes.
Returning to club action on April 12, Gordon began the match at Selhurst Park on the wing, supporting Osula, against a Crystal Palace team with more than one eye on their Uefa Conference League campaign. Nobody knew that day he was making his final appearance for Newcastle United. Osula put us ahead just before half-time on only his second Premier League start and could have made it 2-0 just after the break.
He didn’t and the momentum swung towards Palace, especially when they sent on their heavy hitters with half-an-hour to play. Flash left the field on 71 minutes in the first of Howe’s changes. He was replaced by Barnes. True to form, we conceded twice late on and registered yet another defeat by a one-goal margin.
The competition between Gordon and Barnes for a starting berth has prompted many debates since Howe signed the former Fox six months after the Liverpudlian arrived. Both are predominantly right-footers who want to play on the left flank. Barnes looks a more accomplished marksman but he contributes almost nothing when his team are trying to defend from the front. Pressing is not his game. He lacks energy when compared with Gordon, who usually gives opposing players little time to relax.
I’m indulging in speculation here after pummeling you with a wealth of facts and figures. Was there some sort of fall-out between the manager and one or two players because of the Palace defeat? April 12, 2026, just happens to be the 165th anniversary of the outbreak of Civil War in America. Was their a small-scale version of that conflict inside the Newcastle camp?
Whatever the truth, Gordon played not a minute more for Howe. His omission from the squad to face Bournemouth six days later raised eyebrows. The manager said: “He missed training on Thursday and Friday with a problem he picked up on Wednesday. So, we knew he wasn’t going to be ready. It was an injury. He went for a scan on Thursday morning, so we knew it was going to be an injury that was going to take him out of the game. We’re unclear when he’ll be back. We don’t think it’s a long-term injury, but whether he makes next week, we don’t know. We’ll have to see how he goes this week in training.”
Eyebrows had been raised. Spirits fell when United lost 2-1 to another late, late goal. Seven days later, another game, another defeat, this time 1-0 at the Emirates, again with no sign of Gordon.
By this time, his agents were said to have agreed personal terms on a five-year deal with Bayern Munich. The die was cast. With the Germans in pole position to sign him, a decision seems to have been made to take Flash out of the firing line, to avoid the risk of injury scuppering a deal. That’s the off-the-record version from St James’ Park.
Meanwhile, United’ s hopes of securing a place in next season’s Europa League or Uefa Conference League were disappearing faster than water down a plughole, despite the longed-for boost of playing only once a week. For the final four fixtures of a 58-game season, Gordon was on the bench. He stayed there, unused, with luminaries such as Aaron Ramsdale and John Ruddy for company.
Howe talked of selecting only those players he could trust, based on what he saw on the training ground. He also spoke of looking to the future, although Kieran Trippier, aged 35, was given a fitting send-off in the final home match of the season.
Many supporters believed Howe had earlier been economical with the truth when saying Gordon had a hip injury, perhaps in an attempt to protect him from criticism.
If that was the manager’s plan, it was ill-judged and unsuccessful. Twelve months earlier, Alexander Isak had been accused by many supporters of giving less than 100%. The last thing the Toon Army wanted to see was a repeat. Doubts over Gordon’s attitude resurfaced.
Another season-ticket holder, who has been attending St James’ Park since the late 1950s, was far from distraught when he heard Gordon was off to Barcelona. “I am inclined to think he would have been on his way in the summer, irrespective of any falling-out with Eddie, and I am not sure I will miss him. When he was with Everton he was a cheat who loved winding up the opposition fans/players and consequently I never warmed to him.”
One man who seems to have few doubts is Tuchel. Gordon has made the 26-man squad for the World Cup. By the middle of July, perhaps somewhat earlier, his reported transfer fee of £70m will be under intense scrutiny. Everton will be due a slice of the difference between what we paid them and what Barca pay us for his services. Newcastle are also said to have included a sell-on clause in this new deal.
Only time will tell whether we saw the best of Anthony Gordon. As Howe said after the Benfica match: “There are very few who can do what he can.”
He turned 25 in February and had four seasons left on his contract. A football contract, clearly, is drawn up not to be honoured but to ensure prized assets fetch the highest possible price when they leave.
As I said at the start of this article, Flash is a divisive figure. Congratulations and thanks if you are still reading.
In an attempt to sum up his three and a half seasons with us, I am borrowing a few lines from a song called Disappointed. It’s by two brothers from Sunderland, David and Pete Brewis, the core of an upbeat combo known as Field Music. Check them out. You won’t regret it . . .
“If you want me to be right every time
You’re gonna be disappointed
If you need me to be everything
You’re gonna be disappointed.”