Anthony Gordon exit to spark Newcastle mutiny in race for St James’ Park exit | OneFootball

Anthony Gordon wants to leave Newcastle again because water is wet and his exit looks set to spark mutiny in the ranks at St James’ Park.

It’s been a tough old time for Newcastle. Seven defeats in ten Premier League games leaves them above only those clubs fighting relegation in a slump which has also seen them knocked out of both domestic cup competitions by Manchester City and mauled in the Champions League by Barcelona.

Eddie Howe is facing the sack but may walk before he’s pushed if he doesn’t get assurances over summer transfer plans which depend on one of their crown jewels departing to ensure they remain within the bounds of the Premier League’s new Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) rules.

The Telegraph’s Luke Edwards has revealed that Gordon – who pushed for a transfer to Liverpool from Newcastle two years ago – is once again ‘keen to explore his options to leave’ the club this summer.

He’s yet to tell the club he wants to depart ‘but the feeling inside St James’ Park is that the winger will seek a move in the summer’ and the Newcastle hierarchy are ‘braced for early bids’ as the winger wants his ‘future sorted before the World Cup’.

Whether it’s especially bad news for Newcastle is up for debate. He scored 10 Champions League goals this season but has managed only six in the Premier League to go with just two assists and there’s said to be ‘frustration internally’ over his performances, as there is among the Toon fans, who may well be open to the idea of a sizeable bid from Liverpool or Bayern Munich for the inconsistent England international.

That may be preferable to the exit of Sandro Tonali, whose agent continues to declare interest in his client from every big club in Europe along with unconvincing caveats about the Italian international’s happiness on Tyneside.

It would surely be preferable to Bruno Guimaraes being sacrificed amid interest from Manchester United.

Newcastle fans will hope the bond built with Bruno, an honorary Geordie, would stop him from pushing for the exit – reports suggest he at least won’t kick up a fuss.

But with CEO David Hopkinson insisting that a) any player leaving Newcastle will do so ‘on terms that benefit the club’, and b) the club only need to sell one of their marquee players to fund summer recruitment, the Magpies hierarchy should be ‘braced’ for more than summer bids for Gordon; they could have a mutiny on their hands.

Rebellion came at great cost to Newcastle last summer as the Alexander Isak saga dragged on and on and ended in what look like increasingly ill-advised moves for £120m pair Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa, neither of whom can get into a Newcastle team in desperate need of goals.

After several excellent transfer windows under Howe, who’s taken the team from relegation peril back into the Champions League and ended a 70-year trophy drought, last summer was an absolute stinker, with the £55m signing of Anthony Elanga another significant blot on the copybook.

Those transfer missteps have contributed significantly to this season’s dramatic downfall to reinforce suggestions that one of the wealthiest clubs in world football remains a stepping stone to the top level; a place where your Gordons, Tonalis and even Tino Livramentos want to leave lest their careers stagnate.

It’s hard to imagine those players blocked from the exit are going to accept their fate as they watch one lucky teammate granted an escape route this summer. It’s surely more likely that Tonali will push harder for a move if Gordon hands in a transfer request, or vice versa, given the signal of intent it would send.

And might it also be the final straw for Howe, whose reputation remains fully intact for now but would suffer a significant hit should a second season of malaise follow the drop-off this term.

He, like Gordon, Tonali and other Newcastle wantaways, may also be racing for the exit to avoid the perpetual rebuild at St James’ Park.