No deal was done, though, and Gordon has stepped out of his professional comfort zone. Quizzed on whether he is surprised that top-flight teams in England did not pose greater opposition to Barcelona’s big-money agreement, Newcastle legend Waddle – speaking in association with NewBettingSites.uk – told GOAL: “I think he was linked with Arsenal, probably for that left-hand side because they’ve not really had anybody fixed out there. So, Martinelli and whoever, they’ve not really got that position and thought, ‘I’m going to have that shirt, that’s my shirt’. Saka probably has on the right.
“Arsenal were looking probably at a cheaper option of saying, ‘we’re not paying whatever, 80, 70, 60 million’. They were looking at a lot less than that, I think.
“It’s come out of the blue, that move, whether they were impressed when he played the two games against Barcelona, whether they saw something there that they were interested in. (Lamine) Yamal on one side and Anthony Gordon on the other looks quite promising. But time will tell.
“He’s done well at Newcastle. He actually did, for me, have his best games as a number nine. His pace, his movement, suited the way Newcastle play – they play on the front foot. Barcelona’s quite similar, even though, obviously, the heat factor comes into a lot of their games. But I wonder if they’ve looked and thought, we can play him as a nine, because (Robert) Lewandowski’s obviously been released. They haven’t really had a lot of options.
“They’ve been linked with (Julian) Alvarez at Atletico Madrid, who’s a good player. But maybe they’re thinking, if we get Gordon, he could be a nine or an 11. So, it could be a good bit of business by Barca.”
