Anthony Gordon and the self-fulfilling prophecy

One thing that can be guaranteed, if Newcastle United lose a match, Anthony Gordon will have the finger pointed at him.

Sometimes even when he hasn’t played!

On Saturday, Anthony Gordon started the match and Newcastle United lost to Everton.

I can’t believe the abuse that the lunatic fringe throw the way of Anthony Gordon, both online and even some characters inside St James’ Park doing so.

Quite disgusting in my opinion.

It is like Pavlov’s Dog, it is like they are conditioned to blame Anthony Gordon no matter what, AND think it is ok to shell out the most shocking abuse.

Anthony Gordon turned out not to be the annoying thick scouse charva that we had believed him to be (wanted him to be?) when at Everton, in fact, not like that at all.

I think he has proved anything but that. Anthony Gordon carries himself well off the pitch and has proved to be a huge asset on it.

Yet like Pavlov’s Dog, some Newcastle United fans are incapable of rational independent thought and the ‘annoying thick scouse charva’ button is activated whenever NUFC lose a match.

Yes, Anthony Gordon got caught in possession which led to the winning goal for Everton. However, he played alright overall on Saturday, in terms of the team in total. If listing the players in order, he was certainly not in the bottom half when rated on performance.

As always, with no complaint he played where he was asked to and did his best, Anthony Gordon started through the middle, then moved to left wing, before then the right.

I tell you what, if Newcastle United had three Anthony Gordons to play across the frontline, we would be doing alright. He works hard, he sprints time and time again, I just wish a number of our other players could keep up with him…, both in terms of speed of thought and movement.

The self-fulfilling prophecy

For many Newcastle United fans, it has become a self-fulfilling prophecy with Anthony Gordon, or rather, it is in great danger of becoming so.

Just for clarity, this is a definition of self-fulfilling prophecy: ‘A sociological term used to describe a prediction that causes itself to become true. Therefore, the process by which a person’s expectations about someone can lead to that someone behaving in ways that confirm the expectations.’

So with the Anthony Gordon haters within the Newcastle United fanbase, they repeatedly claim that he doesn’t want to be at the club, is desperate to get away, doesn’t try. There were even some knacker conspiracy theorists who claimed that Gordon got sent off on purpose against Brighton last year, so that it would help Liverpool win the League Cup final and help smooth his then (supposed) imminent move to Liverpool.

Yet here he is, Anthony Gordon has been at Newcastle United over three years now and hasn’t ever agitated to leave, quite the opposite. Always speaking positively about our club and city.

Ironically, the only time there has been any possibility of Anthony Gordon leaving St James’ Park, was when Darren Eales and Amanda Staveley were running the club, they allowed such a shambolic situation to come to pass. That June 2024 saw the club having to generate more than £50m+ immediate profit through player sales, or else break three year rolling PSR limits. There was talk of those running the club having to force the sale of Anthony Gordon or another key first team player, instead they forced the sale of two of our most promising young players, Anderson and Minteh, to get us within PSR limits.

Yet now I think we are in danger of losing Anthony Gordon and the lunatic fringe of the NUFC fanbase would be a large part of that.

The self-fulfilling prophecy, these fans always doing Gordon down, claiming he is desperate to leave, then doing everything they can to make that happen. Which if it does, they will then turn around and after three and a half years (or more of him being at NUFC) will claim that this PROVES he was always wanting to leave!

Three years and counting

Anthony Gordon’s first full season saw an incredible 21 direct goal involvements in 34 PL starts, the impressive achievement in 2023/24 of double figures for Anthony Gordon on both PL goals (11) and assists (10), plus named Newcastle United’s player of the season.

Despite a season hit by injury and fitness issues, in the 2024/25 campaign, Anthony Gordon still managed 15 direct goal involvements across all competitions, his nine goals and six assists seeing him help Newcastle United win the League Cup and qualify for the Champions League for a second time in three years.

However, even then, I still felt for a vocal minority of Newcastle United fans, that any praise for Anthony Gordon was begrudging.

In my opinion, Anthony Gordon doesn’t get the same treatment that other Newcastle United players get.

When he and Newcastle United are flying, it feels like praise for Anthony Gordon is so begrudging from many fans.

When Newcastle United aren’t doing so well, it feels to me like Anthony Gordon is invariably at the head of the queue when fans are playing the blame game.

This season, Anthony Gordon has had some challenges, with injuries, fitness issues, that early three game suspension and so on.

I would say he has done more than ok, a bit up and down, indeed, maybe summing up Newcastle United in the opening months of the season. Yet for other Newcastle United fans he has been shocking, useless, never play him again, sell him etc etc. The selling him is the real extreme lunatic fringe of the fanbase but they are out there.

The reality is that this season so far, Anthony Gordon has now started 31 games in all competitions and had 19 direct goal involvements, scoring 14 and five assists.

The big remaining positives this season, are Newcastle United now in the last 16 of the Champions League and only two wins aways from a Wembley FA Cup semi-final.

Without Anthony Gordon, Newcastle wouldn’t still be in either competition, in my opinion.

Against Bournemouth in the FA Cup in the third round. Gordon came off the bench and scored from the penalty spot five minutes into added time to equalise, that after his pass released Tonali to win that spot-kick. Then deep into extra time, Anthony Gordon put an excellent cross in for Harvey Barnes to score. Before then Gordon also smashing home his penalty in the shootout to help United get through. At Aston Villa, he then came off the bench when the score was 1-1 to play a key part in the eventual 3-1 away win.

In the Champions League, Anthony Gordon has started eight matches and scored ten goals, plus getting two assists.

If Newcastle United are to taste success this season, then for sure Anthony Gordon will be a big part of that.

He is by far Newcastle’s best attacking player and along with Hall, Bruno, Livramento and Tonali, one of United’s five best individuals overall.

Anthony Gordon should be given all of our support, he is a real asset to Newcastle United and for sure, even the lunatic fringe will realise just how good he is, if he ends up playing for another club.