“Liverpool Do Like The Player.” – Paul Gorst On ‘Unbelievable’ Linked Premier League Star | OneFootball

Preparations for the new Premier League season have stepped up a gear at Liverpool this week, with new head coach Arne Slot facing the media – including our very own Chris Pajak for the first time. Slot also got to take a first look at some of the club’s stars who are not representing their respective countries, including Curtis Jones, Conor Bradley and Jarell Quansah.

Also present at the press conference was new sporting director Richard Hughes, who spoke in glowing terms about FSG CEO of Football Michael Edwards and expressed his belief that the new boss’s style of play would be popular with Kopites inside and outside Anfield.

One man who has recently been on Hughes’s radar is Newcastle winger Anthony Gordon. According to the Telegraph’s Luke Edwards, the England star has had his ‘head turned’ by recent interest from the Reds. It was reported that the Magpies had offered Gordon to Liverpool last week in order to comply with PSR regulations, with Jarell Quansah to move in the opposite direction.

On the latest episode of our Journo Insight show, we asked the Liverpool Echo’s LFC correspondent Paul Gorst to take us through the Gordon story.????

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Paul said:

“With journalists who are connected to Newcastle, there might be one or two things that might jar with what we’re hearing from the Liverpool end.

“All things are pointing towards Newcastle had a big black hole that they needed to fill in terms of PSR deadlines on Sunday, June 30th. Depending on who you spoke to, that was anywhere between 60 and even £100 million.

“Newcastle essentially thinks that they’ve filled that void… but at the time, there was plenty of panic going on.

“Anthony Gordon was someone who was offered up. Liverpool are full of admiration for the player. I don’t think they made too much of a secret of that, in all honesty.

“Liverpool do like the player, but if there’s an area of the pitch where they’re well stocked, it probably is that left-wing forward area, isn’t it?

“I’m not too sure whether this one is totally dead in the water, but I think it will require quite a bit of movement on certain parts, i.e. Luis Díaz before we hear it’s being revived.

“This is the key indicator that suggests that maybe Liverpool’s version is the one that’s correct, because Liverpool wouldn’t be offering up Jarell Quansah in any negotiations.

“Quansah is somebody who Newcastle did float as an idea as part of a player-plus-cash offer. Liverpool have no intention of letting Quansah go. They see him as a mainstay of the first team for the future.

“He [Gordon] made no secret of his admiration of Liverpool in recent weeks. I think he described Steven Gerrard as his idol a few weeks ago.

“The Newcastle-friendly journalists have all said this week that his head has been turned. That’s why I think maybe this isn’t necessarily dead in the water.”

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Redmen Reacts

At Arne Slot’s first press conference on Friday, new sporting director Richard Hughes was asked about the relatively quiet start to the summer transfer window for most Premier League clubs. He responded that he expected business to pick up in August, following the completion of the Euros and the Copa América. He also mentioned that Liverpool may look to be ‘opportunistic’ with regard to their transfer activity, and continuing a pursuit for an unsettled Anthony Gordon – who was hailed as ‘unbelievable’ by teammate Bruno Guimaraes – would fit that description. The deal may be harder to seal now Newcastle has solved their short-term PSR issues, but with no European football at St. James’ Park for at least the next 12 months, the lure of a switch to his boyhood club would certainly appeal to Gordon. His goal and assist numbers could be improved in a side that will expect to create lots of chances under Slot. The only sticking point could be the cost – are FSG likely to sanction a close-to-record transfer fee for a player with five direct competitors for a starting berth?

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