‘No-brainer’ - Anthony Gordon explains Everton decision and Newcastle United ‘ambitions’

Anthony Gordon has spoken about his transfer from Everton to Newcastle United and the ‘difficult’ fallout of the move. Gordon, who has ten goals and eight assists in the Premier League this season, moved to St James’ Park for £45m in January 2023 - leaving an Everton side that were languishing at the wrong end of the Premier League table.

Gordon’s move to Tyneside was a very high-profile one and dominated much of that transfer window. And speaking on Sky Bet’s Overlap, Gordon has admitted that it was a ‘difficult’ time in his life - but he knew that he had to make the move to Tyneside in order to help fulfil his footballing ambitions.

Gordon said: “The whole process was difficult. I am mentally strong, but that has played a big part in me being who I am now, so I am very thankful, but it was so hard at the time.

“Like you said, Liverpool’s biggest unity is everyone being together, scousers looking after scousers, and for someone to leave that environment, no one is going to like it - and rightly so. But, ultimately, I’m too ambitious to turn down the opportunity that was presented to me. Newcastle are only going one way and looking from the outside they were absolutely flying. 

“I think they were 4th when I signed and it was a no-brainer. My ambition is to be at the very top of football, whatever that looks like, and I couldn’t do that where I was.”

He continued: “That’s the thing, a lot of what you see in the media is club driven and I didn’t really care too much to change the perspective because I am very comfortable in myself, how it ended and ultimately I got what I wanted - I joined Newcastle.

“I did want to leave but ultimately the club had to sell me. The way it played out was that I was ‘desperate’ to leave, but that was never really the case. I just wanted to fulfil my ambitions. I never bothered too much about changing people’s minds, if they want to believe what they’ve read, that’s fine by me.”