Anthony Gordon England conundrum

Anthony Gordon has been brilliant for Newcastle United this season.

Player of the season so far? Well, put it this way, I don’t think anybody is ahead of him as things currently stand.

Yet another brilliant Eddie Howe signing, with so many Newcastle fans looking pretty foolish after instantly writing off a 21 year old Anthony Gordon, before giving him the chance to get properly fit and adjust, a young player having been treat disgracefully by Everton and their fans. Gordon scapegoated for the total mess at Everton, as they chose to sell him in a very late desperate but doomed attempt to try and avoid breaking FFP / PSR rules.

Well, all that is in the past.

I don’t think any Newcastle United fan (nor indeed any honest neutral, even Everton fan…) believes that Anthony Gordon is anything other than a very talented hard working young player with electric pace, who is scoring and creating goals for fun this season.

In 25 Premier League starts this season, plus one PL sub appearance, Anthony Gordon has had 14 direct goal involvements, scoring nine and getting five assists. That is an average of better than a direct goal involvement every two starts in the Premier League this season. Gordon is also showing his versatility when playing through the middle when asked to, scoring United’s goal at Blackburn in midweek, when playing as centre-forward after Isak was subbed.

Surely even gormless Gareth Southgate must see he has no alternative but to select Anthony Gordon for this summer’s European Championships in Germany, to not do so would be an absolute disgrace.

This is where though it becomes a bit of a conundrum, for me anyway.

I think that absolutely Southgate MUST select Anthony Gordon for his next England squad (for two games in March) AND for the Euros in the summer.

However, I then worry on how it may impact on Anthony Gordon with regards to Newcastle United.

Let me explain.

28 May 2023

Anthony Gordon is finding his feet at Newcastle United as the season comes to an end and scores his first NUFC goal at Chelsea in a 1-1 draw in the final PL match of the campaign.

10 June 2023

Having ended the season with NUFC, Anthony Gordon almost immediately joins up with the England Under 21s, ahead of their European Championships last summer. Playing in a warm up friendly on this day (10 June 2023) ahead of the tournament.

22 June to 8 July 2023

Anthony Gordon plays in all six games and is named player of the tournament as he helps England U21s win the U21 European Championships.

July 2023

Anthony Gordon very quickly then joins up with the Newcastle United squad for pre-season.

12 August 2023

After the pre-season preparations, Anthony Gordon starts and stars, as Newcastle hammer Villa 5-1 on the opening day of the season.

12 August 2023 to 2 March 2024

Anthony Gordon has played in 38 of Newcastle’s 39 games so far this season.

11 March to 19 May / 25 May 2024

Newcastle United have between 12 and 14 matches left this season and very likely that Anthony Gordon will start in all of them.

This is my England conundrum with Anthony Gordon, if gormless Gareth accepts the inevitable (no guarantee with him!), then Anthony Gordon could end up training and playing pretty much non-stop from August 2022 through to summer 2025.

Last season (2022/23) he played in 34 games for Everton and Newcastle.

Then the Under 21 Euros with England last summer.

Now already 38 appearances for Newcastle this season, with up to 14 more possible.

Then this season could end and straight off pretty much with England to prepare and then take part in these summer 2024 Euros with England.

The Euros final is 14 July 2024 and then the Premier League season kicks off on 17 August 2024, right through to end of May 2025.

The last thing we want to do is see such a talented young player get burnt out.

In today’s modern football of so many matches, so many competitions, so many competing interests, it is a problem for so many top players.

Gareth Southgate will name his England squad for the March get together very soon..

It will be shameful if Anthony Gordon isn’t included for this one, the last England get together before the end of the season.

Bruno Guimaraes has been named in the Brazil squad and they play England on 23 March, then on 26 March they face Belgium. You have to think that pretty much any player hoping to go to Germany in the summer will need to be in that March squad.

You just know that if Anthony Gordon was playing for the likes of Tottenham, he would have already been part of England squads this season.

For those Newcastle United fans who see the ideal solution as Southgate continuing to ignore Anthony Gordon. Well, that is plain daft really.

For Newcastle United to become the force we want them to be, we need our best players to get recognised by their countries, as they will have international ambitions as well as club ones.

Players are only human and if they are getting ignored by their national team set-ups then it will be tougher to retain them AND attract others.

Bruno getting selected by Brazil only helps our hopes of keeping him long-term.

The same with Anthony Gordon and others.

As for solving this England and Newcastle United conundrum of so (too!!) many matches, I don’t have the answer.

I just hope Anthony Gordon takes it in his stride, just as he has done everything else this season.