ANTHONY GORDON INTERVIEW: Newcastle star on ‘horrendous’ ordeal last summer, how football became a ‘chore’, what REALLY happened with Liverpool and why he knows exactly how Alexander Isak feels

Last summer, Anthony Gordon was Alexander Isak.

‘I understand what Alex is going through,’ says the England winger, talking to Mail Sport from here in Seoul. ‘What I can say, for me, is that it’s been an absolute pleasure to be out of the transfer speculation for a summer! It’s the first time in about three years! It’s been so easy, so mentally refreshing.’

We can sharp change that?

‘No, no! Keep me out of it! I’m not linked to any clubs and I’m very happy where I am. I’m enjoying my football again.’

Twelve months ago, Newcastle explored the sale of Gordon to Liverpool in a desperate attempt to avoid a Premier League points deduction for breaching profit and sustainability rules.

I was with him at the Euros in Germany and recall the 24 hours before breaking the news of the potential deal, during which time he flew over the handlebars of his bike at the team hotel.

Black, blue and bloodied, he came to speak to the media inside our Blankenhain Castle base – and was super-engaging, as ever – but afterwards he was glued to his mobile phone in the castle’s old kitchen, waiting for his team-mates to finish their duties. That was unlike him.

Off dictaphone, we’d normally chat about family or a shared love of fancy notebooks (he diaries all his emotions and motivations). At the time, a Liverpool medical in nearby Leipzig was being hastily plotted.

The move, however, did not happen. Alternatives, in the form of Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh, were sold instead for a combined £65m. Gordon returned to Newcastle and, as I was told then and throughout the season, Eddie Howe and his staff had to work hard to get him ‘back in the building’. I put that notion to him here in the South Korean capital.

‘It’s true, that was the case,’ he says. ‘I would never lie. It was difficult for me because one, I had the Euros, which was horrendous for me mentally. I was there, I wasn’t playing.

‘Then I had the transfer stuff. With PSR, I thought I was going to leave at some point in the window. It didn’t happen. I had to get my head around that to begin with (thinking he was going), and then to get my head around it again (when it didn’t happen) was hard.

‘I’m a human being. It’s really difficult. That is why I understand what Alex is going through. I feel for him. He will be going through a lot. The club is going through a lot. I hope everyone gets what they want in the end.’

Isak wants to join Liverpool and, citing a thigh injury, declared himself unavailable for this Far East tour. A bid has finally arrived from Merseyside, and been rejected. Gordon did not agitate for a move, but there is no doubt that his head was turned and subsequently scrambled.

That, coupled with two summers without a break, meant last season’s performance was way below the previous campaign, in which he won the club’s player of the year and was elevated to the England squad. He wants to get something off his chest about the past 12 months, and beyond.

‘The last three years have been quite mentally draining for me,’ says the 24-year-old. ‘Football became like a chore – there was always so much noise around me. There were so many games and I never had a summer off.

‘After the Under-21s Euros (in 2023) I had four days off. Last summer, I had just over a week off, plus all the noise. At times last year, I always felt negative – physically drained, mentally drained. I don’t feel like that now.

‘I’ve had a full summer off, five or six weeks, with my family and friends. You can see, I’m really refreshed. I’ve got my appetite back for football. I feel that. I didn’t have that last year.’

The Euros did not help. Gordon was used for just four minutes by Gareth Southgate during England’s dreary group-stage displays, despite arriving at the tournament in the form of his life. I was there covering England and, having seen what he’d done for Newcastle that season, was annoyed when he remained on the bench.

‘I felt exactly the same way!’ he says. ‘I felt like I was there to play, like I should have played. I felt the team really lacked what I could give. We lacked that hunger, that bite. But now, looking back… actually, I try not to look back! I need to put that in the past.’

Is next summer’s World Cup a fresh motivation, then?

‘Right now, I don’t care about that,’  he says. ‘All I care about is Newcastle. The way I got into the England squad was playing well for Newcastle. That’s the way I’ll get what I want from life.’

Gordon’s season did not start how he wanted, yet the way it finished was even more testing.

He was sent off in the FA Cup fifth round against Brighton when he shoved an opponent in the face and was suspended for the Carabao Cup final victory over Liverpool.

He then lost his place in the side to Harvey Barnes and, when he did return, was substituted by Howe at half-time on the final day of the season.

From all of that, he takes a positive.

‘I’m quite strange,’ he says. ‘I need, like, external motivations. I have to find ways to motivate myself. The end of last season was all the motivation I needed to make it personal with myself again.

‘It was almost like everything was going too well. I was getting picked for England and everything was going along nicely. I almost needed something to go wrong for me to come back, and the end of last season was that.’

My sons met Gordon in Singapore last week. As I told them – ask his advice on football, but not on riding a bike. He laughs at that now, but talk turns to a bit of advice he gives himself.

‘My mum and I always used to say when I was a kid, if you work hard, you’ll never have a bad game,’ he says. ‘It’s true – when I work hard, I never have a bad game. 

‘Running, tackling, doing things for the team, going above and beyond. I always get my rewards that way. I lost a bit of that at times last season. So yeah, that would be my advice to your kids!’

Before parting ways, conversation returns to Isak. Or rather, the absence of him. Gordon has played up front before, most notably under Lee Carsley in the victorious Under-21 Euros two years ago. Would he fancy taking on the role of striker for his club, too?

‘I’ve said before, I like playing No 9,’ says Gordon. ‘I’d have to practise and get the reps in to get the patterns that we do. If that’s a challenge the manager wants to throw at me, I’m happy.’

And take the vacant No 9 jersey with it? ‘Haha – no! There’s a lot of pressure with that number! I’ll stick to 10, thank you!’

No 10 or No 9, this season is about Gordon getting back to the No 1 version of himself.