Newcastle boss Eddie Howe has urged striker Anthony Gordon not to be distracted by speculation linking him with a summer move to Arsenal.
A report on Friday morning suggested the 25-year-old, who scored four goals in the Champions League playoff first-leg victory over Qarabag last week, will be a target for the title-chasing Gunners.
Howe, who is still dealing with the fallout from Alexander Isak’s defection to Liverpool last summer, could do without a repeat of that saga, but admits there is little he can do to prevent it.
Head coach Howe, whose side face Gordon’s former club Everton in the Premier League on Saturday, said: “I’m not sure there’s a lot I can do about that. I’ve not seen the story, so it’s news to me.
“But we’re mid-season, we’re in the middle of some of the biggest games of his career and who knows what’s going to happen internationally with him in the summer as well?
“He’s not got time to look left or right, he’s got to be fully focused on straight ahead and the next game and trying to be as good as he can be.”
Gordon, who earlier this month dismissed rumours he was on the way out of a club at which he signed a new “long-term” contract in October 2024, will hope to continue his good run of from to secure a place in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for this summer’s World Cup finals, and Howe is hopeful he will not be unsettled by continued talk over his future.
Asked if he feared the player might be, the 48-year-old said: “Only if he reads it, I suppose. In this age, there’s always rumour and speculation.
“I don’t see probably 90% of it — I’m sure the players probably see more than I do — but I think it comes with the territory of being a top player and playing at this level, that there’s going to be speculation.
“I think you’ve just got to put it out of your brain and you’ve got to focus on the football because as we know with our schedule, there’s so many games, there’s no time for distractions. We have to be fully focused on each match.”
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Speaking as he and his players waited to learn their opponents — later confirmed as Barcelona — in the Champions League round of 16, Howe was asked why he believed so many of his players have been linked with moves away from St James’ Park in recent months with Tino Livramento, Lewis Hall, Malick Thiaw, Sandro Tonali and Nick Woltemade as well as Gordon finding themselves thrust under the spotlight.
He said: “You tell me. It’s your industry that’s creating those stories. I think it’s irrelevant, really. It’s how the players take to that.
“If the players absorb it and it affects them, then of course, that’s a negative. But I think our players are robust enough to ignore it.”
