Anthony Gordon's Newcastle fate sealed by Chelsea - Report
Chelsea ended Newcastle United's wafer-thin hopes of qualifying for Europe on Tuesday night.
On Tuesday, we laid out everything that needed to happen in order for Newcastle to sneak into the Europa Conference League on the final day of the season.
The very first thing was that Chelsea could not beat Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday night. There was a chance that Spurs, who needed a win to guarantee Premier League safety, did what Spurs do and bottled it.
Chelsea beat Roberto de Zerbi's side 2-1 at Stamford Bridge, meaning Tottenham's fate will go down to the final game, and Newcastle cannot qualify for Europe.
No European football will have consequences
As much as Stefan Borson insists that Newcastle wouldn't be financially better off qualifying for the Europa Conference League, that's not how Newcastle's Chief Financial Officer, Simon Capper, sees it.
As reported in The Chronicle, Capper said that qualifying for the Europa Conference League is 'better than nothing'. The lack of income from European competition next year will affect Eddie Howe and Ross Wilson's transfer budget this season.
That almost certainly now means that Anthony Gordon will be sold. It was looking very likely anyway, but now it feels practically nailed on, with at least one major sale set to be sanctioned.
Just get it done quickly
The question isn't really if Anthony Gordon will leave, but more a case of where he will go. Bayern Munich remains the most likely destination, but we're not convinced that the gap in the clubs' valuations will be bridged.
Bayern and Newcastle are about £15 million apart on valuation and the Toon CEO David Hopkinson made a big point of insisting that any sales will be on 'our terms' this summer, and having said that, now he can't be seen to be backing down at the first negotiation otherwise it just flings the door open for other clubs to come in and try and steal our players.
As much as we'd prefer Gordon to be sold to a club outside of the Premier League, our biggest hope is that his future is resolved quickly, more than anything else. We just want it all resolved one way or another. The last thing we need is another dramatic transfer saga overshadowing our summer.
