When the Eddie Howe team to face Barcelona was made public at 6.45pm on Tuesday, Anthony Gordon was not in the starting eleven, though named on the bench.
Roy Keane, Wayne Rooney and…Alan Shearer, were amongst those criticising the ‘decision’ by the former Everton winger.
The assumption clearly made, that it was Anthony Gordon deciding not to make himself available for selection with reports of illness, Alan Shearer declaring that only “something extraordinary” would have made him tell his manager he wasn’t available to start.
I like Alan Shearer giving his insight on Newcastle United and I agree with him the vast majority of times, plus he obviously speaks honestly and with passion about United, as he is a lifelong fan, same as me and you.
However, I think an apology is in order on this occasion, surely Alan Shearer now accepts that he got this badly wrong.
I expect nothing less from the likes of Man U fan boys such as Rooney and Keane, who have no Newcastle United connection, Shearer though a very different case.
Eddie Howe on Friday morning spelling out just how wrong Alan Shearer and his punditry mates called the situation.
The United boss making crystal clear who made the decision: “Anthony Gordon was absolutely willing to play [start] in the game against Barcelona. I know there are a lot of comments [but] it was my decision not to start him, based on the fact he had been ill that morning and had not attended the training session. He was prepared to play [start] but in consultation with the medical team, we didn’t think he was fit to play [start].”
It now made public that Anthony Gordon was not even available to take part in a walk through session on the morning of the Barcelona match.
Thus the medical team advising Eddie Howe that a limited number of minutes from the bench was the strong advice. Which is indeed what happened, Anthony Gordon impressing when he came on for the final quarter of the match, including setting Harvey Barnes up when he struck the post.
Illness has affected a number of players in the Newcastle United squad and indeed Nick Woltemade missed the Man U match last week. It was later revealed that the sickness had made him suffer significant weight loss in a short period of time. I think we have all been there and appreciate what kind of sickness is being talked about, those times when our body feels like it is trying to expel your insides via every available route! I know how bad I have felt in the past, struggling to raise my head off the pillow, never mind the thought of trying to compete at the highest level against one of the best football teams in the world!
Whatever happened to giving a Newcastle United player (or manager…) the benefit of the doubt.
It is ironic that so many trolls (not meaning Alan Shearer by the way!) who claim to be Newcastle United fans, want to claim that Anthony Gordon has this season prioritised Champions League over everything else. Claiming he hasn’t given the same effort in the Premier League.
Yet now these same trolls/Newcastle United fans also want to claim that Anthony Gordon is now willingly opting out of facing Barcelona at St James’ Park in the last 16 of the Champions League!
Please let it make sense…
The take on this was so daft to start with, from Alan Shearer and all the rest. The idea that Anthony Gordon contributes so much to getting United to the Champions League last 16 and then decides to supposedly opt out of facing Barcelona simply on a whim. Especially when everybody previously agreed that Anthony Gordon was absolutely desperate to impress in the Champions League, the most high profile club competition in the world.
As I say, what happened to giving the benefit of the doubt to one of our own, you know, a Newcastle United player who has contributed so much to the success of recent years? Especially when it all made no sense anyway.
If it had been say a Premier League run of the mill match that Anthony Gordon hadn’t started due to illness, then it would at least make some kind of sense to question it. Especially if say, Newcastle United had a huge Champions League last 16 match against Barcelona AFTER that run of the mill PL game.
However, believing that the opposite is true, that Anthony Gordon would willingly miss the Barcelona match to then want to play against Chelsea instead this Saturday…simply ridiculous.
This insidious anti Anthony Gordon nonsense needs to stop. As I said earlier, we can’t expect any better from those who don’t care about NUFC, however, for Newcastle United fans to be like this, it is beyond a joke.
Eddie Howe at his pre-Chelsea press conference went on to talk about the wider Anthony Gordon debate: “My perception is that Anthony Gordon does face a lot of scrutiny, but I think that comes with being a top player, I don’t think you can escape that in this day and age, maybe part of that is his history and how he’s ended up at this club and the clubs that he has played for previously…”
The United boss going on to say: “As soon as you play for England of course, you go to a different level in terms of scrutiny and expectation. So the modern player has to withstand all of those things. I think Anthony has done that well and he is single-minded enough to blank out a lot of the noise. It is one of his strengths.”