Eddie Howe has said Anthony Gordon may have played his final match for Newcastle, with Bayern Munich pushing to sign the winger while Newcastle prepare to host West Ham on Sunday evening. Gordon last featured in mid-April and was later left on the bench for a home win against Brighton and a draw at Nottingham Forest.
Howe did not confirm that a move was imminent, but he made clear that conversations are happening away from him. "There are discussions that potentially might be happening but not with me," he said, adding that this stage of the season naturally brings talk about next year.
The Newcastle manager said Gordon had been out with a minor hip injury for two games after mid-April, then returned only as an unused substitute. He argued the side had coped well without him. "The team has played well in his absence and it [leaving him on the bench was] was with a partial view to the future, yes," Howe said. He also put the club first when asked about the England forward’s place in the side. "I put the team and the club above any individual," he said. "So, if it was the right thing, then I would play him, of course."
The tension around Gordon is being driven by Bayern’s bid to lower Newcastle’s asking price. The Premier League club want £75m, but Bayern have not wanted to pay that and are trying to force the fee down by about £10m. For Newcastle, the timing matters because Howe has already said the club faces a summer of major change. "We are going into a summer where there are a lot of unknowns and there will be a lot of change for us," he said.
That change is not limited to Gordon. Seven or eight players are expected to leave Newcastle this summer, with the exits of Kieran Trippier and Emil Krafth already confirmed. Fabian Schär is another name in focus, with his contract ending next month. Howe said the defender still has value on the pitch and that the club are ready to talk. "Fabian still has a lot to offer on the pitch," he said. "We will have discussions with him and his representatives in the next week."
Howe also stressed that Schär’s situation is not necessarily a goodbye, leaving open the possibility of a short-term stay even as Newcastle reshape the squad. That mirrors the wider direction of travel at the club: a three-to-five-year plan built around some painful turnover and a few decisions that may be made before summer business officially opens. For Gordon, the next step could come quickly if Bayern and Newcastle bridge the gap. For Newcastle, the bigger question is how many familiar faces remain when the new season starts.
