Eddie Howe & Anthony Gordon have given the game away on major Newcastle United deal

The Magpies opened talks with Gordon - last season’s Player of the Year - in the summer. It’s been widely reported that progress has been made this week and the England international responded by putting in his best performance of the campaign so far against Manchester City on Saturday.

Gordon started up front in Alexander Isak’s absence and scored the equaliser from the penalty spot as the two teams played out a 1-1 draw St James’ Park.

Speaking to Premier League Productions after the game, Gordon was asked about his contract situation and tellingly said: "I don’t need any persuading to stay here. I’ve been excited to sign the contract for a long time. It shows my commitment to the club which has never been in question!”

The 23-year-old faced challenging summer. He was overlooked by Gareth Southgate at Euro 2024 and was the subject of interest from Liverpool as United looked to raise funds in order to comply with Premier League Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR).

That led to concerns that Gordon was feeling unsettled with his body language in the 3-1 defeat at Fulham last weekend.

But the player was back to his best against the Premier League champions having been serenaded by Wor Flags before kick-off with a ‘AG10’ display. Newcastle boss Eddie Howe was delighted.

“Brilliant from Wor Flags, brilliant from everybody,” Howe admitted. “Anthony probably needed a bit of love today.

“Of course, it is difficult for me to love the players all the time, sometimes you have to give them the opposite in order to get the right responses but ultimately I think it is really important we love all our players and we allow them to enter the pitch in a great frame of mind knowing that they’re free to make the odd mistake and they’re playing in an environment where they feel protected and loved, and I think Anthony has got that through what he has done here.

“Again you could see his commitment and the crowd could see how much effort he was putting into the game, and that’s all we want to see, me included. Brilliant from supporters and a great response from Anthony.”

And Howe too seemingly gave the game away in regards to Gordon’s contract. Howe said. “I think we spoke about it being close on Friday and hopefully it gets even closer.”