Anthony Gordon to Liverpool bombshell as Newcastle United talks confirmed

The Magpies were just days away from an inevitable Premier League points deduction before resolving their critical situation at the 11th hour through the sales of Yankuba Minteh and Elliot Anderson to Brighton & Hove Albion and Nottingham Forest, respectively, for a combined £68million.

Although head coach Eddie Howe wanted to keep both players, he recently admitted the situation played out “as good as we could have hoped for” as it enabled United to retain of their key assets. That includes Gordon, who was wanted by Liverpool - as confirmed by Staveley.

“My biggest concern was that we’d lose Alex (Isak) or Anthony (Gordon) because Liverpool chased him and both are extraordinary players,” Staveley told The Athletic. “Negotiating is tough because you have to pretend it means nothing to you when it means everything.”

There have since been suggestions that the exit talk unnerved Gordon, particularly with it being his boyhood club, but Howe is confident that the 23-year-old will arrive back on Tyneside ready for the campaign ahead.

“I’m confident he is ok,” Howe told reporters in Germany earlier this month . “I think you can only judge Anthony on what he has given Newcastle on the pitch. He’s been committed. 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."

Howe added: “I’d welcome him back with three arms if I had them! 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. In those last few weeks it was very, very difficult.

“He’s an integral part of what we’re doing. He needs a bit of a break. By the time he comes back he’s ready to go.”