Anthony Gordon made his most recent appearance for Newcastle United on 12 April 2026, United losing 2-1 at Crystal Palace and Gordon replaced by Harvey Barnes on 71 minutes when NUFC were 1-0 up.
That appears set to be the former Everton winger’s very final appearance for Newcastle United, the player set now to have his medical in Barcelona after the two clubs agreed a £70m deal.
Anthony Gordon then missed the home match against Bournemouth and away game at Arsenal, due to what was reported as a minor hip problem.
The England international came back into the matchday squad for the 3-1 home win over Brighton but was an unused sub. The same situation repeating against Forest, West Ham and Fulham. Anthony Gordon named on the bench each match in May but left on the bench.
When asked about his team selections, leaving out certain players such as Anthony Gordon and Kieran Trippier, Eddie Howe indicated that this was in part due to preparing for next season and playing those who are set to still be at the club for the 2026/27 campaign.
However, Kieran Trippier did come off the bench very late in the Forest away game and then started in the final home match against West Ham.
As usual, Newcastle United with plenty of conspiracy theories about the absence of Anthony Gordon. Eddie Howe supposedly having a big fall out with the player, Gordon supposedly refusing to play and so on…
The reality
Almost six weeks ago in late April 2026, Gordon Stipic-Wipfler (Executive Director of Unique Sports Agency who represent Anthony Gordon) travelled to Munich to have talks with Bayern Munich regarding a potential transfer to the Bundesliga champions. Sport BILD reporting that this meeting had been set up to discuss personal terms ahead of a potential move for the Newcastle United star.
That then swiftly followed in early May by Spanish media outlet Sport reporting on and publishing images of Barca’s Sporting Director Deco meeting with Will Salthouse and Adam Dugdale to discuss personal terms with Barcelona for Anthony Gordon, Salthouse and Dugdale also work for the Unique Sports Agency.
Newcastle United would have had to give permission for a player (via agents) to have such very open and well publicised talks with other clubs. Clearly Newcastle gave the go ahead for this to happen and hence the very public talks Gordon’s agents had with Bayern and Barcelona.
Newcastle United accepting very early, long before the 2025/26 season came to an end, that Anthony Gordon would be leaving and wanting things to get moving asap. Allowing the player (via agents) to get personal terms agreed with interested clubs ahead of negotiating with the likes of Bayern Munich andso that the transfer would be done before England fly off on 1 June for World Cup preparations. My assumption is that they wanted/needed the Gordon sale to go through in the 2025/26 accounts for various reasons.
My further assumption then was that not playing the England international in matches, especially the very final ones, was not to punish Anthony Gordon or the player refusing to play, but to try and ensure no injury that could potentially scupper a transfer.
Now Keith Downie of Sky Sports confirming this was the case. He says the main reason Anthony Gordon not even coming off the bench, was to prevent the chance of an injury that might stop a transfer happening.
Newcastle United clearly taking a strategic decision as far back as April, if not before, that they would sell Anthony Gordon this summer AND do it ASAP before the World Cup. The very opposite of the Alexander Isak shambles last summer that saw the Newcastle United owners sabotage their club’s own pre-season preparations, refusing to sell Isak despite him going on strike for the pre-season and indeed into the Premier League season, only to sell him on summer 2025 deadline day.
With David Hopkinson and Ross Wilson now in place, rather than the chaos created in summer 2025 of United having no CEO or Sporting Director working at the club.
Get Anthony Gordon sold early and then that a massive help towards getting their own incoming transfer activity moving.