Desperate Newcastle could offer £70m Anthony Gordon for Liverpool transfer AGAIN as they scramble to avoid PSR breach

06/29/2024 05:30 PM

NEWCASTLE'S desperation to avoid a PSR penalty saw England star Anthony Gordon offered to Liverpool.

Toon fans were rocked by the revelation that the Tyneside club approached Liverpool earlier in the week to take England star Gordon off their hands.

The Reds initially said no as Newcastle wanted Kop defender Jarell Quansah, 21, as part of a deal to flog the former Everton ace to his old club's Merseyside rivals.

Now the St James' Park faithful face an anxious wait going into Sunday’s deadline for Profit and Sustainability Regulation compliance.

And Newcastle are hoping to solve their problem by completing a deal to sell winger Yankuba Minteh, 19, to Brighton for £33million.

Premier League clubs are limited to £105m in losses over a three-year period — but any sales before Sunday’s cut-off can go straight into the 2023-24 accounts.

That has seen a number of clubs rushing to balance their books to avoid the possibility of a points deduction.

Newcastle could make another move to offload £70m-rated Gordon, 23, to Liverpool before midnight on Sunday.

Former Reds youth player Gordon joined Toon only 18 months ago in a £45m deal with Everton.

But he is one of a handful of Eddie Howe's stars who could command a big fee at short notice. That also applies to striker Alexander Isak, who is a target of big-spending Chelsea.

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The Sweden star is valued at more than £100m — but Chelsea are prepared to sweeten the deal by offering Nicolas Jackson in part- exchange.

Senegal hitman Jackson, 23, ended last season with 17 goals and six assists in a hit-and-miss first Stamford Bridge campaign.

Chelsea have led the way for a while in selling homegrown players to keep within financial fair play restrictions.

And the Blues are keen to seal a deal for midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall because newly promoted Leicester have major PSR problems of their own to deal with.

Again Chelsea are willing to part-exchange, with striker Armando Broja and midfielder Cesare Casadei, who spent the first half of last season with the Foxes, discussed.

Newcastle, who would prefer to part with centre-forward Callum Wilson ahead of Isak, have been busy setting up other potential deals.

Toon agreed to sell Minteh to Brighton, after trying to include him in a swap deal with Nottingham Forest that would have seen Anthony Elanga head in the opposite direction.

Gambian Minteh turned down a £40m switch to Lyon earlier in the week that would have helped ease ­Newcastle's headache.

Forest are no strangers to financial compliance complications, having been docked points for breaches last term.

That also happened to Everton, who have sold forward Lewis Dobbin for around £10m to Aston Villa — hours after Tim Iroegbunam joined the Toffees from Villa Park for a similar fee.

Villa completed the sale of England youth schemer Omari Kellyman, 18, to Chelsea for up to £19m, while Dutch left-back Ian Maatsen, 22, moved in the opposite direction for £37.5m.

Chelsea are another club under pressure to comply with the current rules — and the Premier League have made it clear they are monitoring all these deals closely.

And the Prem has warned clubs that charging each other inflated fees to get around PSR could land them in hot water.

The league insists all transfer fees must be at fair market value.

So it is set to be a busy 'deadline' day, with almost half of Prem clubs worried about how their books are balancing.

The fact Newcastle are willing to part with Gordon, however reluctantly, still came as a shock to many fans.

Preparations for a medical in Leipzig, the nearest big city to England's training base in Erfurt, were initially explored.