Anthony Gordon (now playing for FC Barcelona)

[Dr Venkman]

8 minutes ago, gbandit said:

Think there are just a lot of unhappy people supporting us, with a negative outlook generally. 

Before the woke liberal agenda took over we would have just called them cunts.

[Nucasol]

Just now, Dr Venkman said:

Before the woke liberal agenda took over we would have just called them cunts.

Or miserable wankers.

[DebuchyAndTheBeast]

I was sceptical when we first signed him because of the price tag. While he hasn't exactly pulled up any trees for us, he has been a useful system player pressing relentlessly and also getting some important goals. However, he has had a mediocre season for us in the league so I find it hard to believe that he was being linked with Bayern and Barcelona and is actually getting a dream move to Barcelona. 😅

 

I do wish him well because he has helped us win a trophy and qualify twice for the CL.

[Hovagod]

Think the club are going a bit overboard on the fulsome thank yous as a strategic move. Distancing ourselves as far as possible from that cunt and what he did last summer, and showing perspective new signings how it can actually go if they sign with the thought of one day leaving for a bigger club.

[geordiesteve710]

1 hour ago, Andy said:

 

It's different to the Isak situation for sure, but I'm still not convinced it's been handled brilliantly.

 

Ignoring the accusations from Shearer about feigning injury and the on-field bust-up with Trippier, Gordon still went through the motions for large parts of the last two seasons IMO, and putting out a soppy PR YouTube video won't change that for me.

 

It's absolutely miles from ideal that he vanished for the last six games of the season when we still had a good chance of qualifying for Europe - that either doesn't reflect well on Gordon, or it doesn't reflect well on the club, depending on whose decision it was. He was supposedly one of our key players and he should have been on the pitch giving it 100% until the end of the season to put an extremely poor league campaign right. That would have had far more value for me than "protecting" him and ensuring we got him sold. 

 

Just because it was better than Isak, doesn't mean people have to wax lyrical about the situation. 

Some common sense, especially the bit in bold.

[geordiesteve710]

2 minutes ago, Hovagod said:

Think the club are going a bit overboard on the fulsome thank yous as a strategic move. Distancing ourselves as far as possible from that cunt and what he did last summer, and showing perspective new signings how it can actually go if they sign with the thought of one day leaving for a bigger club.

There's definitely some of that involved. The Isak carry-on last year wasn't a good look when you're trying to sell the club to ambitious young talents.

 

At the same, there's no reason for the fanbase to start tugging itself senseless because we sold a player to the mighty Barcelona.

[St1pe]

1 hour ago, Andy said:

 

It's different to the Isak situation for sure, but I'm still not convinced it's been handled brilliantly.

 

Ignoring the accusations from Shearer about feigning injury and the on-field bust-up with Trippier, Gordon still went through the motions for large parts of the last two seasons IMO, and putting out a soppy PR YouTube video won't change that for me.

 

It's absolutely miles from ideal that he vanished for the last six games of the season when we still had a good chance of qualifying for Europe - that either doesn't reflect well on Gordon, or it doesn't reflect well on the club, depending on whose decision it was. He was supposedly one of our key players and he should have been on the pitch giving it 100% until the end of the season to put an extremely poor league campaign right. That would have had far more value for me than "protecting" him and ensuring we got him sold. 

 

Just because it was better than Isak, doesn't mean people have to wax lyrical about the situation. 

I disagree that he’s been poor for large parts of the last two seasons. He’s definitely had periods where he’s been off. It’s mostly been this season for me though and despite being a big fan of Howe I think a lot of it was his fault. 
 

He didn’t adapt from losing Isak and Gordon started the season as a forward. I know Gordon views that as a successful stint but I think he’s a shite there and the experiment not only hindered Gordon’s form it took him a while to settle back into being a wide player where he should have been looking to make that England position his. I think it also delayed Howe figuring out solutions to our forward problems and meant we’ve dithered at this sub standard all season.

 

Im not here saying he hasn’t been poor at times because he absolutely has just like everyone else. Hes also had periods this year where he’s been the best player but a lot of people decided to ignore it given these strongly held beliefs they’d assigned to him. 
 

It was only the last 3 where he was fit and in the squad where Howe chose not to play him with this imminent transfer? I sort of see the logic in and again it seems to have been a managerial call rather than a player one. 

[midds]

I stopped caring about Anthony Gordon when he stopped giving a shit about the club and started purely playing for himself. I get the fact he's ambitious and wanted to impress but I saw him go through the motions way too often only to suddenly turn it on again when he was in the spotlight. It's a team game and he decided he didn't want to be a part of that any longer and I've got no time for people like that. 

 

He's now got his move and the PR stuff from him and the club looks very polished and encourages the 'best wishes' mob. The Gordon of 2 years ago was excellent and gave a shit. The Gordon that left yesterday isn't remotely close to being the same player. He's been looking after himself for months and months, which is fair enough - I get it, but I'll certainly not be lining up to heap praise on him, he gave up on the club. I genuinely couldn't give a fuck what he goes on to do, good, bad or indifferent 

[duo]

It is what it is.  We got one good season out of him.  Pressure on Wilson now to bring in a capable replacement - we cannot afford to get that wrong.

[The College Dropout]

3 hours ago, St1pe said:

The revisionism here man 

 

Isak was awful during the run in and it nearly cost us Champions League football. Everyone at the time thought he was carrying an injury he was that bad until we found out he was being a fanny behind the scenes telling people he wanted to leave. Callum Wilson was kicking off about it and alluded to this going on behind the scenes and Isak still getting picked over him. 
 

A lot of the people “not comfortable” with Gordon’s send off are the people that seemed have attached to the made up narratives about him. He was undeniably poor in phases during this season but you could label that on every single player in our team. 
 

Cracking send off from the club and a genuinely lovely leaving video from Gordon. It’s exactly how it should be when all parties have benefited. 

Isak was our standout performer that season.  He was poor in the run in but he played and scored crucial goals to secure CL football. In his last season for us he scored 27 goals, 23 in the PL. Isak was routinely excellent for us for all 3 years he was at the club - you can argue he was awful for his last 10 games. 
 

Gordons form has been indifferent for 2 years.  I always gave him the benefit of the doubt but many have questioned his application game to game for 2 years straight.  His head was so turned he didn’t even play in the run in. 
 

agree with @Mattoon Gordon’s conduct these last two years has been much worse.  The only difference is the club and Eddie Howe have indulged Gordon and made it easy for him. Lessons learned aye but I don’t like how he didn’t play at the end. Guehi played with just 6 months left on his contract. Guehi would’ve been on far less wages and an injury would leave him with no contract. And he was denied 2 moves earlier he was keen on. 

 

 

Edited Saturday at 09:29 by The College Dropout

[The College Dropout]

It’s no different from the Isak saga from the player end. Probably worse because of considerably worse performance. 

[Paully]

Great deal for all involved - he’s frustrating but was great on his day which didn’t happen enough to warrant the fee we’ve got!

 

He’ll rip that league up as apart from a few teams, it’s nowhere near the PL standard!

 

Good luck to him and I’m glad he didn’t go to them Scouse bastards albeit I think he’ll be there in 2 or 3 years time!

 

[Nucasol]

1 minute ago, Paully said:

I think he’ll be there in 2 or 3 years time!

Yep. As long as Barca flog him for a profit and we get some extra bunce, we’re good.

[Andy]

1 hour ago, St1pe said:

I disagree that he’s been poor for large parts of the last two seasons. He’s definitely had periods where he’s been off. It’s mostly been this season for me though and despite being a big fan of Howe I think a lot of it was his fault. 
 

He didn’t adapt from losing Isak and Gordon started the season as a forward. I know Gordon views that as a successful stint but I think he’s a shite there and the experiment not only hindered Gordon’s form it took him a while to settle back into being a wide player where he should have been looking to make that England position his. I think it also delayed Howe figuring out solutions to our forward problems and meant we’ve dithered at this sub standard all season.

 

Im not here saying he hasn’t been poor at times because he absolutely has just like everyone else. Hes also had periods this year where he’s been the best player but a lot of people decided to ignore it given these strongly held beliefs they’d assigned to him. 
 

It was only the last 3 where he was fit and in the squad where Howe chose not to play him with this imminent transfer? I sort of see the logic in and again it seems to have been a managerial call rather than a player one. 

 

I don't want to lay into the lad too much more as he's gone now, but I do think those champions league penalties last season have done a lot of heavy lifting for him. 6 open play league goals in 2 full seasons is just massively sub-par, and there were lengthy spells of both seasons where he was just jogging around the pitch looking disinterested that seem to have been completely forgotten by some. 

 

I feel like this transfer has left people looking back more fondly on him because he's gone to Barcelona and the PR from his marketing team and the club has been in full force. If he'd performed as he has, sat out for large periods of the season when a transfer was brewing, then signed for Man Utd or Liverpool, I'm not sure he'd be getting the same response. 

[The College Dropout]

1 hour ago, TaylorJ_01 said:

It's all very false.

 

He talks as if we meant a huge amount to him and he "loved every minute" etc etc.

 

The reality is he half-arsed it for nearly 2 seasons, refused to play in certain positions, faked injuries, cost us games by being a fanny and getting sent off, and contributed very little other than pens. Then he down tools for the end of the season as we were chasing Europe and went off to learn Spanish. All while we shove £150,000/week up his arse like mugs.

 

If he really cared about us he'd have insisted in helping us turn our form around and get higher in the table.

 

The media circus is all designed to gloss over that and retrain our memory, and it's fine, but it's not the reality is it.

Aye. And yet overall I’m still kind of happy for him. It’s a mega move.  The narrative is a bit of a false one. 
 

I am a little salty that he hasn’t been consistently good for us for 2 years.  Including really poor red cards, a lack of effort, possibly feigning injury and sitting games out at the end.  
 

You show me you care by showing up and doing your job to the best of your ability.  I’ve always given Gordon the benefit of the doubt about effort (outside of a few instances of losing the ball and not running to get it back). But when his head is so turned he’s not selected during the season I can’t applaud that. 
 

I am looking back kinder on Isak. Played better. Better application, attitude even fitness level. Denied a new contract and then the club dug in their heels to slow down his sale.  
 

I do give credit to Wilson for handling this better. That the difference a DOF makes.  

[The College Dropout]

3 minutes ago, Andy said:

 

I don't want to lay into the lad too much more as he's gone now, but I do think those champions league penalties last season have done a lot of heavy lifting for him. 6 open play league goals in 2 full seasons is just massively sub-par, and there were lengthy spells of both seasons where he was just jogging around the pitch looking disinterested that seem to have been completely forgotten by some. 

 

I feel like this transfer has left people looking back more fondly on him because he's gone to Barcelona and the PR from his marketing team and the club has been in full force. If he'd performed as he has, sat out for large periods of the season when a transfer was brewing, then signed for Man Utd or Liverpool, I'm not sure he'd be getting the same response. 

I always gave him the benefit of the doubt effort wise.  But certainly something was off mentally. He was never able to consistently lock in. Game after game apart from that one season and he wasn’t good enough to perform at his best level unless locked in.  I took it for mental fragility. Be interesting to see how it plays out at Barca. When off form does the running and pressing dip too again? Or does he always provide genuine up and down effort there? Does he get petulant red cards?

 

To a degree Gordon was always a player that did things for optics.  He was always much better at pressing forward than tracking fullback runs the way the Joe’s did so diligently.  Gordon would do the type of 1 man pressing the crowd likes but get nowhere near the ball (like the Liverpool red) but would often let his fullback run free.  

[The College Dropout]

2 hours ago, Elliottman said:

Did you watch Isak for the last couple of months of his time here? He was absolutely shocking. There was a highlight reel going round of him showing how bad he was. 

I pretty much give players the benefit of the doubt when it comes to effort.  But worst thing you can say about Isak’s performance was that he was bad for his last 10 games here (same level he’s been at at Liverpool btw).  3 years, some injuries year 1, 10 bad games to see it out - absolutely stellar 90% of the time. 

[ffs]

i think gordon is essentially a good egg (i so loved it when he just up and drove to the hospital in manchester having seen a tweet that he was the favourite player of that girl with leukaemia. it would've been muuchhh easier not to do that, >95% of people probably wouldn't have) and also a good player. he's certainly not perfect, but then neither am i. i hope he smashes it at barca, and kindof sneakingly suspect that he will. it's thanks and all the best in your future endeavours from ffs.

[Andy]

17 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

I pretty much give players the benefit of the doubt when it comes to effort.  But worst thing you can say about Isak’s performance was that he was bad for his last 10 games here (same level he’s been at at Liverpool btw).  3 years, some injuries year 1, 10 bad games to see it out - absolutely stellar 90% of the time. 

 

Performance-wise and in terms of overall contribution, Isak was infinitely better than Gordon, particularly in their respective final seasons. 

 

The main differences between the two sagas are (a) one of them went to a club we don't like, and (b) the club didn't want to sell one of the players, but were quite happy to sell the other. The narrative around the two situations is completely different as a result of those two factors.

 

Yes Isak went on strike and acted a cunt, but Gordon never had the need to do so as the club didn't dig their heels in. I'd bet my house that if we'd stopped him going to Barcelona he would've done exactly the same thing. 

[Dr.Spaceman]

2 hours ago, TaylorJ_01 said:

It's all very false.

 

He talks as if we meant a huge amount to him and he "loved every minute" etc etc.

 

The reality is he half-arsed it for nearly 2 seasons, refused to play in certain positions, faked injuries, cost us games by being a fanny and getting sent off, and contributed very little other than pens. Then he down tools for the end of the season as we were chasing Europe and went off to learn Spanish. All while we shove £150,000/week up his arse like mugs.

 

If he really cared about us he'd have insisted in helping us turn our form around and get higher in the table.

 

The media circus is all designed to gloss over that and retrain our memory, and it's fine, but it's not the reality is it.

 

Absofuckinglutely this, in spades. Don't be fooled by it. However, I am glad the club have went down this route with him, with future young signings in mind.

 

[Superior Acuña]

2 hours ago, Hovagod said:

Think the club are going a bit overboard on the fulsome thank yous as a strategic move. Distancing ourselves as far as possible from that cunt and what he did last summer, and showing perspective new signings how it can actually go if they sign with the thought of one day leaving for a bigger club.

I think that and also having the fans see sales like this is as a positive, strategic thing for the clubs growth that doesn’t have to be bitter.

[Dr Venkman]

2 hours ago, Nucasol said:

Or miserable wankers.

Let’s compromise on miserable cunts.

[Superior Acuña]

8 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

Why did Howe not play him?

Probably because Howe wanted to plan for the future and not play a player he’d agreed to sell, and not scupper a move by injuring him.

 

The fact Howe had him the squad does not suggest he was on strike. Nor him smiling with coaching staff. And that Athletic article says it was Howe’s choice and Gordon was happy to play. You can criticise his performances and say he’s not been on it as much the last 2 years or whatever. But unless you’re very ITK you maintaining he downed tools and behaved like Isak is just making stuff up. 

 

 

Edited Saturday at 10:38 by Superior Acuña

[Smal]

1 hour ago, midds said:

I stopped caring about Anthony Gordon when he stopped giving a shit about the club and started purely playing for himself. I get the fact he's ambitious and wanted to impress but I saw him go through the motions way too often only to suddenly turn it on again when he was in the spotlight. It's a team game and he decided he didn't want to be a part of that any longer and I've got no time for people like that. 

 

He's now got his move and the PR stuff from him and the club looks very polished and encourages the 'best wishes' mob. The Gordon of 2 years ago was excellent and gave a shit. The Gordon that left yesterday isn't remotely close to being the same player. He's been looking after himself for months and months, which is fair enough - I get it, but I'll certainly not be lining up to heap praise on him, he gave up on the club. I genuinely couldn't give a fuck what he goes on to do, good, bad or indifferent 

 

Agree with all of this, but simultaneously think the PR stuff is the right move from the club - even if it should be very transparent to any of our fans that have been paying attention for the past couple of seasons.

[Dokko]

Club going fully out the way to show their support of the move. Proper dig at Isak.