A test of nerve and resolve regarding Anthony Gordon and Liverpool?

The Anthony Gordon speculation, mainly perpetuated and continually promoted by the red scouse media, is not going away.

It pains me to even think of Gordon racking up at the most patronising club in Britain.

Of course, Flash is from Merseyside and was on Liverpool’s books as a youngster, before he was released by them at the age of 11.

After Newcastle United signed him from Everton at the end of January 2023, it took him six months to get himself up to scratch in a Toon shirt.

He had a wonderful 2023/24 season and has established himself as a fan favourite. I believe he was perfectly happy at Newcastle United, before Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) reared their ugly head this June.

Our club were seemingly unprepared and it appears that the Newcastle United hierarchy did look at any number of last gasp contingency plans, in the eventuality of needing to sell a key player, such as Anthony Gordon, by the end of June to satisfy PSR, if selling squad players wasn’t doable.

This would have been such a bloody shame and lessons will surely have been learnt.

In the event, squad players Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh were traded, to Nottingham Forest and Brighton and Hove Albion respectively, for a combined total of £68m.

That though doesn’t rule out any further departures this summer and the speculation surrounding Gordon will be cranked up by the Anfield club.

Liverpool and their fans love themselves. There is also no denying that they are the most successful English club in European and World football.

As a much younger lad in the 1970s and 80s I never liked them and would always want them to lose both domestically and on the continent. They rarely did.

They have always plucked players from Newcastle United at will.

Terry McDermott, Alan Kennedy, Peter Beardsley, Dietmar Hamann, Andy Carroll, Jose Enrique and Gini Wijnaldum all immediately spring to mind. Even young Bobby Clark had been getting on the Liverpool bench last season.

Anthony Gordon has shown that he is a bright and intelligent young man on more than a few occasions, since moving to the North East. I hope he quickly dismisses any thoughts about joining Liverpool. I really think he would be daft to go there now.

United surely cannot allow Anthony Gordon to leave St James’ Park at this stage of his and our development. It has now become a test of nerve and resolve, plus the reds will gain pleasure from the way they are unsettling one of our star men.

Make no mistake about it, we are now a very real and direct threat to Liverpool.

You only have to look at the way the now departed Jurgen Klopp used to run his mouth off about Newcastle United post-takeover.

Moving on quickly to Kieran Trippier and I think that he may well have played his last game in the black and white stripes. He was an incredible buy from Atletico Madrid in 2022 and outstanding in the 2022/23 season. His contribution on and off the field has been immense but as my favourite Beatle George Harrison would have said, ‘All Things Must Pass’.