Newcastle eye Fofana & Munoz alongside Lille & Betis stars as Gordon heads to Barca
Anthony Gordon is off to Barcelona to put the finishing touches on a £70 million move from Newcastle United.
On Wednesday night, it was widely reported that Newcastle and Barcelona had agreed a fee believed to be around £70 million for Anthony Gordon to move to La Liga, with the player set to jet to Spain on Wednesday night/Thursday to undergo a medical.
Gordon's exit from St James' Park has felt almost inevitable for months now, and despite being one of our better players over the last couple of years, his performances this season, particularly in domestic competitions, have left a lot to be desired, and so fans don't seem to be losing much sleep over his exit.
Overall, it's a great bit of business for Newcastle. The club gets to move on a player who isn't fully committed; they've done it quickly and moved him to another league while bagging a tidy profit.
Newcastle has plenty of potential replacements lined up
Indeed, according to a report in the iPaper, Newcastle are 'relaxed' about Gordon's exit. It's something they've been planning on for months and they see it as a big first step for their new player trading strategy, in which the club hopes to shed its tag of being reluctant sellers.
The report claims that Newcastle will use the sales of Anthony Gordon and Alexander Isak as part of its pitch to potential new signings.
Speaking of new signings, iNews names four potential replacements for Gordon, all of whom have been mentioned before.
They include Lille's Matias Fernandez-Pardo, as NUFC Blog exclusively reported on earlier this month, along with Lyon's Malick Fofana, Spanish talent Victor Munoz and Real Betis' Abde Ezzalzouli, otherwise known as Ez Abde.
"They have sourced a number of replacements, including carrying out checks on Lille’s exciting Matias Fernandez-Pardo and Osasuna’s Victor Munoz. Lyon’s Malick Fofana – who endured an injury-hit campaign – is another Newcastle have watched.
"Another possibility is Ez Abde of Real Betis, who has a £51m release clause."
Back to being a stepping-stone club?
While we have no issue with the new player trading strategy in terms of moving players on to keep the squad fresh, we are definitely concerned that the club intends to use the sales of Isak and Gordon as part of their pitch to players.
One of the best things we did under the new owners was to shed our 'stepping-stone' identity, and now, by pitching players on 'we can turn you into a star and let you go to a bigger club like these guys', just feels like a return to those days, albeit on a bigger scale.
That being said, if it helps us to land these bigger players, if only for a couple of seasons, it's better than not bagging them at all.
Our time will come when we can bring in these potential stars with the intent to keep them on. We do need to build up to this 'bigger club' status, and this is probably the way to do it.
