FC Barcelona’s summer window has been defined largely by a single major operation: the acquisition of Anthony Gordon from Newcastle United on a five-year contract, with a fixed fee of €70m and variables that take the overall package to approximately €80m. Gordon completed his move to the Blaugranes before the 2026 World Cup began, giving the club’s forward line a direct, Premier League-tested option to complement Lamine Yamal and Raphinha. His early group-stage performances with England in the United States have since attracted pointed criticism from at least one prominent pundit.
Writing in The Telegraph, former Liverpool captain and experienced pundit Graeme Souness delivered a direct verdict on Gordon’s displays against Croatia and Ghana, arguing that the level of performance would not be tolerated at Camp Nou for long.
“It is absolutely fair to say they will have watched their new £70m (equivalent to around 80 million) winger Anthony Gordon in England’s opening group games and wondered what they have bought. If Gordon turns up in Barcelona and plays as conservatively as he did against Croatia and Ghana, then he will not be staying in Catalonia for too long.”
Souness did not stop at the general charge of conservatism. He used Lamine Yamal’s World Cup form as the explicit benchmark, pointing to the teenage Spaniard’s goal against Saudi Arabia – where Yamal drove at defenders and attacked the back post to convert – as the template for what the club demands from its wide forwards. “Lamine Yamal is the template for a Barcelona winger,” Souness wrote, adding that everyone at the club – fans, media, and players alike – would be drawing exactly that comparison.
At 24 years of age, Gordon arrives with a credible Premier League record behind him, having developed from Everton into one of Newcastle’s most consistent attacking outlets across the 2023–24 and 2024–25 seasons, registering double-digit combined goal and assist returns. The World Cup, however, has placed him in a different context: England’s group-stage opponents have invited limited creativity, and Gordon’s cautious positional play drew unfavourable comparisons even before Souness committed his assessment to print. Whether those displays reflect a tactical instruction from Gareth Southgate’s successor or a genuine limitation in high-stakes international football is a question the tournament’s knockout rounds may begin to answer.
The criticism lands at a delicate moment for the Catalans, for whom Gordon represents the only major attacking outlay of the summer window. Barcelona moved decisively to secure Gordon before the tournament, aware that a strong World Cup would have inflated Newcastle’s asking price further and attracted renewed interest from Bayern Munich, Arsenal, and Liverpool. The fee structure – €70m fixed, with appearance and trophy-related add-ons comprising the remainder – reflects a considered calculation by the sporting department, not an impulsive premium. On the left flank, Gordon is expected to bring direct running and defensive intensity to Hansi Flick’s system, qualities that Yamal’s natural right-sided profile does not replicate. Souness’s implication that he should be producing Yamal-level brilliance from the first competitive game misreads the role Gordon has been signed to fill, though the underlying point – that conservative, low-impact performances will not survive scrutiny in Catalonia – is not easily dismissed.
Hopefully, Gordon uses the remainder of the World Cup to demonstrate the directness and intensity that persuaded Barcelona to move ahead of the competition, giving the Blaugranes and their supporters reason to set Souness’s reservations aside before the Liga campaign begins.
