Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe is confident that Anthony Gordon will remain at St James’ Park this coming season, despite transfer interest from Liverpool.
The England international spent the early summer in Germany at Euro 2024, but was unable to play much part in their journey to the final. The winger made just one appearance in the tournament, coming off the bench for a handful of minutes against Slovenia in the group stage.
While his tournament may have been one to forget, aside from a bicycle accident, his 2023/24 season was certainly more fruitful, as Gordon registered 48 appearances, 12 goals and 11 assists for his club. That attracted attention from various suitors, including Liverpool.
But Magpies boss Howe remains confident in an ability to keep the 23-year-old and believes Gordon will be an “important” asset heading into the new season.
“I’m confident he is okay,” he told reporters. “I think you can only judge Anthony on what he has given Newcastle on the pitch. He’s given us everything. He’s been committed.
“I’d welcome Anthony back with three arms if I had them. He’s an integral part of what we’re doing. We’ve had no conversations over the summer where it has been fractious or negative. He’s always been the Anthony Gordon who has given absolutely everything to Newcastle and I want to make that clear to all our supporters.
“Anthony needs a bit of a break but by the time he comes back, he’ll be ready to go. He’s such an important player for us. We didn’t want to lose anybody. Why would we want to lose our best players? We fought really hard to make the right decisions but in those last few weeks it was very, very difficult.
“The biggest danger is, if you bring players back too early, that can really damage their season. But we have a game looming very large against Southampton [the season opener on 17 August] that we have to get them ready for, so it’s a very delicate balance.”
