At the end of June, Liverpool witnessed a £75 million move for Anthony Gordon of Newcastle United fall through.
Liverpool supporters were given a glimpse of what could have been at Anfield during England’s 2-0 victory over Republic of Ireland on Saturday evening. The sight of Trent Alexander-Arnold looking up and spraying outrageous diagonal passes and through-balls is nothing new to Kopites, but Anthony Gordon racing onto them was very nearly a partnership for both club and country.
The Reds agreed a £75m deal for the Newcastle United winger back in June, which would have seen Joe Gomez move the other way in a separate £45m switch, only for it to collapse after the Magpies raised funds to comply with the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules by other means.
In retrospect, Liverpool really has nothing to be upset about their transfer failure.
Luis Diaz has started the season in eye-catching form on the left-flank, scoring three goals from the Reds’ opening three games before also netting for Colombia in their latest World Cup qualifier against Peru.
Meanwhile, now unleashed in his favoured left-wing position, Cody Gakpo was on the scoresheet for Netherlands again on Saturday night in their 5-2 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina to maintain the form that saw him finish as joint-leading goalscorer at Euro 2024 this summer. It is only the form of Diaz that has prevented the Dutchman from starting for the Reds so far this season.
Then there’s Liverpool’s bargain signing of Federico Chiesa last month, brought in for just an initial £10m from Juventus to complete Arne Slot’s attacking options. A well-suited alternative to Mohamed Salahon the right, while also a natural inverted forward from the left, the Reds have had no need to pine after Gordon.
However, Liverpool’s admiration for the boyhood Reds fan remains, and it would be no surprise if they revisited interest in the 23-year-old further down the line the next time they have an attacking vacancy open.
But that could be easier said than done, with Liverpool playing a small role in decision-making at Newcastle United which could potentially cost them the opportunity to sign Gordon in the future.
The opportunity to sign the winger only arose due to the Magpies’ need to comply with the Premier League’s aforementioned Profit and Sustainability Rules. Had Newcastle not needed to raise funds, they would never have agreed to a £75m deal and would not have been open to selling one of their star players in the first place.
Both manager Eddie Howe and Magpies bosses have admitted as much more than once, insisting that they would loathe to sell the likes of Gordon, Alexander Isak and Bruno Guimaraes.
In the end, the £35m and £30m departures of Elliott Anderson and Yankuba Minteh to Nottingham Forest and Brighton & Hove Albion respectively got them over the line.
While there was a reluctance to sell Anderson, given the fact he is a Geordie and boyhood fan of the club, the Magpies made roughly a £24m profit on Minteh just a year after signing him from Danish side Odense. And that was despite the Gambian never even kicking a ball for the club after spending last season on loan at Feyenoord.
And selling fringe players for big fees is a model Newcastle will look to replicate in the future, with Magpies sporting director Paul Mitchell using Liverpool as inspiration.
“Sometimes I think people get a bit confused with ‘big clubs don’t sell players, they just buy players from the smaller clubs’,” he said earlier this week. “I think there’s a lot of good learnings in Liverpool’s practices.
“Even this year if you look what Liverpool did, I don’t think they lost a big one [player], but they did sell Fabio Carvalho at £25million and they did do the centre-back [Van den Berg] at £25m, that’s still £50million and then you can fund a big one yourself.
“So there has to be a more balanced approach, there has to be a more balanced model and there definitely has to be a more strategic approach here that we haven’t had the last two and a half years.
“I think the work that has been done has been really good and set solid foundations in terms of the ability of the squad to perform at the level of ambitions of the club.”
As Mitchell referenced, Liverpool once again proved themselves to be masters of selling fringe players during the summer transfer window. Along with Carvalho and Sepp van den Berg, whose overall transfer fees to Brentford could actually total a combined £52.5m, they also sold Bobby Clark to Red Bull Salzburg for £10m.
The 19-year-old made 12 appearances for the Reds last season to take his overall tally to 14, and came off the bench in Liverpool’s League Cup final win over Chelsea. But the bulk of his game-time came when Jurgen Klopp’s side were decimated by injury.
To bank up to £62.5m for three players who only made a combined five Premier League starts for the Reds is rather shrewd business, regardless of the trio’s potential. But such a transfer model is one Liverpool have followed for years under Fenway Sports Group’s ownership.
Since 2016, they have also sanctioned big-money exits for a number of fringe players, unwanted stars and academy graduates including the likes of Neco Williams (£17.5m), Takumi Minamino (£15.5m), Harry Wilson (£12m), Rhian Brewster (£23.5m), Ki-Jana Hoever (£13.5m), Danny Ings (£20m), Dominic Solanke (£24m), Danny Ward (£12.5m), Mamadou Sakho (£26m), Christian Benteke (£32m) and Jordon Ibe (£15m).
When you also consider exits like Philippe Coutinho’s club-record £142m switch to Barcelona, Sadio Mane’s £27.5m move to Bayern Munich and Fabinho’s £40m departure to Al-Ittihad, Liverpool are regularly completing outgoing deals that are making the rest of the footballing world – including Mitchell and Newcastle – take notice.
Such has been former Reds sporting director – now FSG CEO of Football – Michael Edwards’ reputation for his involvement in previous negotiations, that there’s a story of a meeting with a Premier League counterpart who broke the ice by bowing at his feet in exaggerated appreciation for one particular deal that had seen Liverpool bank a healthy fee for a player who was surplus to requirements.
Of course, the Reds are far more than a one-man show behind the scenes, but such a reputation is both deserved and hard-fought. Consequently, it is also no surprise if others look to replicate, especially with the growing threat of PSR in Premier League football.
But this could make Liverpool’s life more difficult in terms of any potential pursuit of Gordon in the future, having inspired Newcastle’s change of tact.
The Magpies admittedly navigated a subdued transfer market on the incomings front as they failed in efforts to sign Marc Guehi, with Crystal Palace demanding £70m.
Instead, their business was limited to the signing of goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos from Nottingham Forest as part of negotiations for Anderson, Lloyd Kelly on a free transfer from AFC Bournemouth, the already-agreed £28m acquisition of Lewis Hall from Chelsea after a season-long loan, John Ruddy on a free transfer from Birmingham City and the £15m arrival of William Osula from Sheffield United.
But in order to spend big again in the future, it will need to be countered by big-money exits in order to comply with PSR. In the past, that would have opened the door to a possible Gordon departure, and could still do again if Newcastle hands get reluctantly tied.
Yet Mitchell’s admission suggests that it will always be a last-resort as the Magpies now look to follow Liverpool’s example instead.
The Reds might have banked millions over the years through their more strategic approach, but if Newcastle implement the same methods at St. James’ Park, it means that next time they might decide they wish to move for Gordon, there will be no reduced fee. And if such a model is successful, it is debatable whether Mitchell would even hold fresh transfer negotiations in the first place for one of the Magpies’ most-prized assets.
Liverpool pride themselves on being opportunists in the transfer market, with the arrival of Chiesa the most recent example. But if they were waiting for the opportune moment to sign Gordon, before the Premier League’s last PSR deadline was probably it.
