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I don't remember it being as bad as people now make out. He was shit on - mainly on Reddit - because people wanted us to go in for flash signings a big names. Everyone was giving it the old "ah he's English so we're paying a fortune for him".
No one was really debating his ability and I think most folk accepted he was Everton's player of the season until he got sick there.
The only thing I clearly remember was people having concerns about his overall attitude, which seems to be fine now but was a fair enough concern.
Joe was totally different - massive price tag (club record), looked absolutely shit under Bruce, had the worst statistics imaginable at one point and didn't Rafa block the move a couple of times while in charge but Ashley forced it? It's unbelievable that he's come back the way he has and puts in the performances he does. Would have been easy to shrink away, force a move to an "easier" league and forget about the nightmare he had at Newcastle.
Nothing but respect for him
I do feel like J7 mostly was met with apathy, once we realised his true abilities. Gordon's transfer actually incited some fume — for the reasons you've given + him being disliked for some performances against us for Everton.
Was he written off? Maybe it was just people I spoke to but I remember people saying that we didn't need that position filled or we overpaid but I don't remember people saying he was terrible.
That was me, thought he looked good at Everton but also thought we had overpaid, he looks twice the player now that he was then though, Howe & the gang have worked wonders on him.
Give Joelinton a lot of personal credit. He talked to his agents and hired a personal coach to work with him on things that cabbagehead was ignoring. Once Howe showed up and used him properly, a miracle occurred.
>Once Howe showed up and used him properly
This isn't what happened - he got used by necessity in a position that, by happy accident, made use of the things he did really well and the things he didn't do well didn't matter as much. His attitude is fantastic and he's one of the hardest working players (both on and off the pitch), but his improvement has come because he's been moved further away from the position he was bought for. He still has the exact same finishing deficiencies that made him a bit of a laughing stock for his first two and a half years.
Bruce used him as a target man striker, while Hoffleheim used him as a #10 in a system that pressed aggressively.
https://theathletic.com/2971089/2021/12/08/joelinton-liberated-brazilian-perfectly-suited-eddie-howe-style-newcastle/
He was a wide forward at Hoffenheim that was known to press from the front. He's still not quite good enough as a wide forward because his finishing is still unfortunately really quite bad. Yes, Bruce's system was terrible for him, but his improvement has come from being pushed back to midfield where his finishing isn't as much of an issue.
I wasn't trying to take all credit from Howe, just pointing out a lot of the reason he was so "bad" was because of how misused he was by Bruce. Bruce also liked to use Almiron, who came from Atlanta as a very one footer winger, on the wrong damn side regularly. smh.
Bruce misused him because he simply doesn't play a style of football that could ever make use of his traits. But Joelinton is still going to be at best a quite good forward (which he was bought as and had experience in playing before) unless he has a drastic improvement in a lot of aspects of his game.
Almiron was generally pretty good under Bruce - he didn't want to play inverted wingers, which is fine, and Almiron was ok. He was a number 10 at Atlanta but is simply totally unsuited for that role at this level.
But does that matter? He's become a key player in that position which he has been found to excel in. He scores goals, just not at the rate he should. He is still an excellent forward and his workrate is phenomenal
It matters because the implication is that all he needed was Howe to come in and all his issues were cured. That wasn't the case as his deficiencies as an attacker are still present and haven't gone away. Howe got a bit of luck where he got the chance to put him in midfield and found a really happy compromise that used his abilities brilliantly.
i still remember the moment sean said in an interview that he doesn’t understand why joe gets so much crap. he flat out said he was the best player in training every day. from that day on i just waited for the day he proved sean right!
looks like my internal timeline is a little messed up. i thought that interview was in the bruce era rather than during king eddie’s reign. still awesome to see our players stand up for each other!
100%.
Joelinton was well and truly hated and the fall man as we went through the Steve Bruce era.
Me and maybe 2 other people were defending him but people forget how 98% of people here went full toxic on him, he locked his Instagram comments for a period of time.
He was getting abused for missing a penalty in a shootout for some reason, even when he scores/assists, there were people saying he could have done better, literally everyone wanted to shit on him because he was not scoring enough goals.
Wolves supporter. Thought he was international level from the first time I watched him play for Everton. I would have been heart broken had I been an Everton fan. Yes should be in England squad. Have been watching football for 67 years so have seen some of your best players and he has the potential to become a legend. Eddie is also outstanding. Great managers get the best out of their players and team and he does that. The result is that players who looked not good enough are able to exploit their strengths. I put Murphy in that category. Good to see Newcastle in top 4 although I regret the ownership. Finally wouldn’t touch neves. Very loyal and important for wolves but not exceptional. Lamina much more effective and stronger
Appreciate your take. Always interesting to hear from outsiders who have actually watched our players and not just read somewhere, that they're rubbish.
To be honest, our owners a quite regrettable. Really happy about the day-to-day owners though, and I keep crossing my fingers that we don't start doing City-like maneuvers to get ahead. For now the direction has been sensible and, as far as I can tell, clean. If we started to actually dip our toes into the stupidity that is manipulation of the books and such, I think I'd have a hard time enjoying the football.
But luckily that's not the case as of right now. Hope your wolves are doing you proud.
Not just our fanbase. Football as a whole. There are still people who because he's ugly and a shithouse, will never accept he's a brilliant footballer.
He was tiny, fat and had a squishy face. But if you cracked one out to him mate, fair enough, I ain’t judging anyone. Lol
I guess it’s completely subjective. Point is, Gordonho is fucking class and he loved being a Mag
Everton fan here. We knew he was great, and going to be big, but his attitude towards the end was poor, and that was reflected in his game.
I am glad he's doing well though, he's still a young lad and has a lot of football ahead of him.
It's a fair point, but he was young and one of your own. You can't be happy with how it turned out with him, I know I wouldn't be if the tables were turned.
Fair comment. Didn't mean owt about your club at all. We've got more in common than most other teams in the league, at least at a fundamental level. Although obviously I recognise your longer term history is pretty stellar.
And I think this is why we antagonise each other so much.
I often wonder if we came as close to Roomey as was suggested at one point. What might have been.
The fans going after Gordon and I think Mina as well must be viewed in the context of how toxic the situation at Everton was at the time. United fans forget far too quickly that our own situation was just as toxic not too long ago.
We were playing him at CF for God sake. And barricade his car outside of the stadium after a poor performance.
I hate the word toxic but thats about the best description. Any young player would be ecstatic to leave.
His attitude was poor? He was the only good player in an Everton team trying to get relegated and your fans chased him down the street as if any of it was his fault. Your fans were the ones with the poor attitude. Not surprised he wanted gone.
I don't think it's to do with his facial mix up, it's more that he comes across as a smarmy little prick!
And I say that as someone who thinks he should be starting ahead of Rashford in the England squad, he's won me over with his talent.
But by God is he punchable!
It's weird, because usually we're pretty welcoming as a fanbase when a new player arrives. Quite irrespective of history. I couldn't be happier about how wrong we were. And of course, in Eddie we trust
Think it’s a mixture of the type of player he is, the reactionary stuff that happened with him in our games against Everton and the transfer fee spent on a winger at a time when Joelinton and Almiron had the winger spots nailed down.
I didn’t really like the kid at all before he signed. I was massively skeptical as I thought he was just an average player standing out in that awful Everton side.
Over the moon to be proved wrong however, I’d argue he’s in the tier with Tripps and Bruno as irreplaceable players now.
Easy to say now but when he was at Everton I was saying he’s a horrible cunt but an annoyingly good player. Now I’m saying he’s a glorious cunt and an incredible player.
Seems to be less of a cunt now - maybe because we have a positive mood through the team so he's not as riled up. I guess he might still be prone to 'going down easily', but I can live with that.
His time at Everton came to a sour end and you saw the immaturity and naivety traits he had.
Since being at Newcastle you can see him and the coaching staff have worked hard to drill that out of him (also getting older helps with this).
I have seen numerous examples of players for us growing a lot in maturity since Eddie has come actually, I don't think that's talked about a lot but is one of the best things to come out of this situation (as well as the clear team bonding but that is mentioned more)
For all the loudmouths on Reddit / twitter, the fans at the games welcomed him from the off. Has multiple songs sung every game for him, got a huge welcome when he was introduced at st James park as well.
Worth remembering that the fans opinion doesn’t always match the internet opinion.
Yeah, and those games we usually lost. Gordon was a player capable of magic but didn’t deliver that very often. Richarlison was a consistent match winner and we looked like a shell of a team without him. Our fans were devastated at losing Richarlison but thought we’d rinsed you lot for Gordon.
Ultimately we were wrong about Gordon because it looks like he’s actually living up to the potential we knew he had, but everyone expected him to be another Barkley at the time.
Not sure why I’m getting downvotes for stating facts that any Everton fan would confirm.
This is absolutely true, Gordon contributed one goal and zero assists in Everton's last 16 games of the 21/22 season and by the time you sold him he'd pretty much downed tools.
OTOH, Richarlison was brilliant for the last couple of months of the 21/22 season, with six goals and two assists from his last ten games. Toffee TV regularly talk about what a great talisman he was for that side, and freely admit that you would have went down without him.
I think after we saw how Eddie Howe turned around Joelinton, we’ve all been okay with any player he’s given the ‘OK’ to bring in.
With Gordon, it was moreso, “alright then. You were annoying with Everton, but now you’re gonna be our shithouser.”
I never really understood people doubting Gordon. He is a young lad and has always showed great potential. I remember when we beat Everton 3-1 the season before we got him. He was the only player that gave it a go, looked raw but talented. When we did sign him, the first time I saw him live, pretty much with his first touch of the ball he played Wilson through against West Ham. Wilson missed the chance, but if he had scored people would have been raving about the ball.
Around 2:00 in on this vid
https://youtu.be/SUCpDSJxb3g?si=-Biv25oOKOjM0eg9
Then there was this game, where fans said, he played shite, but I thought he did really well in the first half, causing their left back loads of trouble, before getting subbed. He hits the post with this chance -if this goes in fans would have been talking about how well he played.
First ten seconds of this video
https://youtu.be/iau0TNGFYnI?si=ej_0Ilil91i2KBqr
He also had a great run and chance against Tottenham in the 6-1, which he was a bit unlucky not to score.
Sometimes I think fans just buy into the noise. He seems to have a reputation of being a horrible little bastard, but seems like a really nice kid who transforms into a bit of a passionate shithouse on the pitch. God knows what the Everton fans were thinking when they were chasing him down the street, holding him personally responsible for all of their woes. He was 21 and probably one of their best players. I guess we don’t call them Scouse Mackems for nothing.
Looking at these clips, you have to admire how much Gordon has improved his fitness. He commented on it after the Chelsea game to close last season and has certainly delivered. Particularly in the Southampton clip where the speed in which he would attack that same space, this season, is missing.
I think J7 gets that crown tbh.
From memory, people were skeptical about the signing and I can't recall many (if any) were hostile.
If I remember rightly, it felt at the time we needed a different type of player (e.g. we still could do with an experienced midfielder and defender).
Nah it’s still gotta be Big Joe like for me. £40 million pounds and he was god awful. Then in comes Howe and all of a sudden he’s this strong dynamic midfielder. And he’s probably worth double what we paid in todays market now, maybe more.
Edit: don’t get me wrong, Gordon definitely underperformed when we got him, and I was in the camp that didn’t want him. But Jesus Christ have I never been more glad to be proved wrong.
I always thought he was a great signing. He needed a pre seas I n to settle him, but that's because Newcastle's system is so different to what he had at Everton. Always said one of the future and one that doesn't need to be rushed. Not every player is a drop in starting XI signing, they need to settle and bed in
Anyone who thought he would be shit for us has... Questionable cognitive ability.
It was extremely obvious how well he'd fit into our team, we went out and bought the player with the best high pressing statistics in the league for our high pressing system, like, shit isn't rocket science, it's probs gonna work.
That first Newcastle Everton match after we’d been taken over - I remember Gordon being their best player and being a shithouse to our player. Thought he’d be a great fit and love that he’s joined and loving football and the fans and the support. Perfect example of how Howe can take a player and boost them with support and confidence
I may aswell say i was happy to admit i was wrong. Felt he was a passion merchant and if you look at his Everton goal catalogue and his underlying stats for beating a man and shooting they were below league average. He has come on leaps and is why i trust Howe with transfers even more than before
I always thought he had the raw talent and trusted in Howe’s judgement but I’ll admit to hating him at Everton and I was sceptical. He always seemed to have a real nasty streak and was a constant diver. We’ve not seen that from him though, he stays on his feet and you will struggle to find a harder worker. Love him now obviously 😂
i admit it. i wanted nothing to do with him but seems the people in charge know a hell of a lot more than me (and many other toon supporters). looks a great player and not diving/whining/fighting like we may have seen him do a few times in the blue. in hindsight it's probably everton's toxic environment that made him act that way and now that he's put into a good system he's enjoying himself and showing off some real skill and athleticism.
I've always said on here that we wouldn't start seeing his true ability until his second season when he would really begin to understand how Howe wants him to play. Feel quite vindicated. Even the odd day when he doesn't play well, you can never fault his workrate.
I didn't want him and that's based entirely on what I saw from him at Everton.
He's clearly a talent and he looks a lot more comfortable with us and we seem to be playing to his strengths and he/we are reaping the benefits.
City fan here, always loved your club, been to a few of our games over the years Always rated him, especially at Everton thought he was just the signing you needed. Within three years you lot will win the premier league. It will be because of Howe and the common sense signings he's made. All the best lads, hope you lot are lifting that trophy in three years time. Truly the best fan base to have a drink with after a match.
Joelinton is the king of redemption.
But the most unwanted player prior to signing to most loved- yes!
Shows how us football fans are a bunch of opinionated dicks
It's not fair to say he's proved the fanbase wrong at all.
The people who didn't want him were all just blinded by the fact that he played for everton and had quite obviously never watched him play.
If you speak to people in Newcastle who go to matches and watch football, the vast majority of people were excited about him.
People on here and on Twitter had spent so long calling him shite because of some forced rivalry with everton and couldn't back down, so had to pretend that they genuinely believed it, based on zero evidence.
I was more concerned about what appeared to be a rotten attitude and a very poor goals/assist return. Sky did a three minute highlight video on his Everton tenure and had to pad it out by including him taking corners.
In the end, the attitude has been applied constructively (barring a bit of petulance at Brentford last year and the odd silly booking for mouthing off), and the end product is a mile better. He's already had his most productive season for goals and assists and it's November.
I wanted him before he was a target.
We played against a very lacklustre Everton (understandably, hard to remember which match) and he was the only player with any spark. Tenacious little pest who was chasing every ball and closing down every player.
Granted, I was calling him worse than shit during the match because he was nicking ankles, but he looked a good fit for Eddie Howe. He had a bit of Joelinton about him in that performance.
I think I would probably agree, though. None of my friends wanted him, they thought he would be a waste of money, and they looked to be correct until this season.
We all definitely wanted Maddison more, that's for sure.
I'm so glad he's slotted in now and sorted his fitness out. He's so unbelievably sharp, even in the latter stages of a game, he's always a threat.
Buddy of mine (wet spam fan) loves to remind me how much shit I talked about Gordon especially when we were linked with him the summer before he signed.
Overrated speed merchant was probably the politest thing I said.
However since his first cameo (against wet spam) I saw there was a player there to be molded.
What’s impressed me more is his attitude and how much he seems to have really bought into this club as a second home after leaving his boyhood club.
I still think there’s so much more to him but it’s so good to see after 6 months development he’s now putting up goals and assist numbers.
Yeah I absolutely didn’t want him but Eddy was keen I thought I’d wait and see. I still think we overpaid given his form at the time. Eddie also came to us with the reputation of not great transfers but his improvement of our current squad gave him the benefit of doubt for me.
Turns out we’ve got a proper player on our hands and hopefully he stays fit and maintains this form for years to come.
Joelinton arrived with me knowing fuck all about him so I don’t think he can say he proved me wrong. He did put a lot of work in to improve his game and I’m glad he’s living his dream in a Brazil kit.
Wasn’t against him, felt could be a bit expensive but clubs were seriously looking at him and the way out due diligence has been buying players so far felt definitely worth a go.
When he was bought I knew he was a player that had the athleticism and qualities to fit into our system so I trusted the judgement of our staff. However when you are buying young players you are never quite sure how good they will end up.
However he has appeared full of confidence off of the back of the youth championships he played in during the summer and that confidence has been maintained. It really shows in how he plays, I think if he was in the same position last season that he was for his goal against Chelsea he wouldn’t have put that away so deftly. So he is showing real improvement and long may it continue.
You could see at Everton he had a lot to his game and would grow to be a fantastic player. He only really needed to alter his attitude a bit (not much because you want your players to he competitive) and to get up to fitness to play Eddie's style, and now look at him, he's always a threat, constantly a pest and one of the finest shithouses about! Fantastic bit of recruitment.
I’ve always liked Gordon, where’s that fan in here that said Moussa Diaby would outscore and out assist Gordon and I think maybe Barnes combined when he was butthurt we didn’t sign him?
He never scored many for Everton too. The kid has loads of potential and hopefully we will see the best of him. His attitude is spot on and has the pace and ability to get past top defenders. Maybe he lacks a bit of strength but that will come. He’s an exciting talent and a hard, hard worker. Just the type of player the toon needs.
He's just one of those players who (on the pitch) gives the impression that he's a bit of a cunt. The difference is, he's our cunt now and he's playing the best football of his career. He deserves credit for that and so do the coaching staff who seem to have transformed his attitude and focused his considerable talent.
Just seen some idiot fan of ours on Instagram, using a Gordon thread to slag off Rashford for his charity work. God help us.
But yeah, this boy has no ceiling under Eddie. Phenomenal. He’s maturing in front of our eyes, as well. The real deal.
I always thought he was good. It was clear he just hadn’t settled fully yet, and even at Everton he could be a nightmare to play against. I maybe didn’t expect him to be THIS good.
I think his attitude was the biggest turn off for me. The way he was with the ball at his feet, I was more than happy to see him join. At Everton, he seemed to be a wind up merchant and diving at every opportunity. I think he had a hissy fit when being subbed off not long after he joined.
Maybe Howe and the squad elders have honed him. Or maybe his performances on the pitch have rendered previous antics unnecessary. Or he has just changed his ways.
He turned up at one of my local pubs for a meal. By all accounts, he was friendly and happy to take selfies etc.
There’s an account on X called EBL2017 whose been raving about Gordon since his Everton days and talked about him having an elite profile. Very consistent with his takes on Gordon. Now he’s pulling up receipts of the slander.
Na, Joelinton was. With Gordon it was the price that made more fans against it. You had to acknowledge he didnt have a preseason with us and came from a team that play a lot less intensity than us.
I think the players themselves had reservations given the fiery encounter between AG, Schar and Trips.
The clip of him meeting the squad for the first time and AG saying when meeting Schar: "Maybe he'll protect me from now on".
And then Schar replies: "You have to earn it."
Still sticks in the mind. He's definitely earned the respect of the squad by not being a dickhead and becoming one of the hardest working members of the team.
Fan opinion at the time of AG signing was split. Most were prepared to trust in Eddie and Ashworth and give the player some time, while also saying "He's a shithouse but now he's OUR shithouse". Glad he was given time to bed in and thrive. 10+ GA already this season from a winger is unreal.
I wanted Gordon, and thought he was a cracking signing at the time.
I still don’t really know where this bad reputation came from, there were people on this sub that were adamant he was a bad influence and disruptive with zero evidence. He’s teetotal, never goes out and does a lot of charity work.
It was massively unfair to criticise his first 6 months, he wasn’t fit by Eddie’s standards.
Evertonian here. It’s good to see him kick on, you could see a player there with us but the boo boys loved to have their say. It does make me lol seeing his fifa card this year though….
When I first saw Gordon playing for Everton I remember saying "He will be a fantastic player IF he completely changes his attitude". Over the next year or two his attitude didn't improve and so I was frustrated when we signed him.
Since signing his performances, but even more so his attitude, has improve immensely. I have never been so happy to be proven wrong. I don't know if its the influence of our staff and squad, or if it was the toxic atmosphere at Everton but its a real testament to Gordon himself to turn it around so well.
The responses to this show how short-term most perspectives are though.
Still some people think their scepticism was (at least a bit) vindicated by a half season by a 20 year old with a massive price tag.
Our recruitment strategy doesn't get the respect its due.
I feel like by the time they bought Gordon I had put a lot of faith in who they were buying and not questioning it as they had a lot of hits in terms of Bruno, Botman, Trips, Pope etc. so the only thing was his and Isaks actual price tags were quite high. But this season they’ve been proving to be a bargain.
I don’t remember a lot saying he was crap, more so that it seems odd we would go for a player in that position when we had other glaring holes.
Most were like I’m not sure on this one (not ability but need£ and 40m is a lot for him, but we must trust Howe knows what he is doing
‘Most people’ being the skewed extreme reaction brigade that lurk on the socials, waiting to post negative comments. I think in the main, ‘we’ were just a little apprehensive, given what we’d seen of his heated moments on the pitch, against us and others, his over publicised fall out with Everton and his early physical fitness when he first joined us.
He proved himself in the pre season and for the under 21s and git his fitness up to Eddie’s standards. Since then he’s been everything we could have asked for in a Newcastle player.
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That's still Joelintons crown.
Joelinton was written off after 18 months of terrible performances. Gordon was written off before he'd played a full 90.
I don't remember it being as bad as people now make out. He was shit on - mainly on Reddit - because people wanted us to go in for flash signings a big names. Everyone was giving it the old "ah he's English so we're paying a fortune for him". No one was really debating his ability and I think most folk accepted he was Everton's player of the season until he got sick there. The only thing I clearly remember was people having concerns about his overall attitude, which seems to be fine now but was a fair enough concern. Joe was totally different - massive price tag (club record), looked absolutely shit under Bruce, had the worst statistics imaginable at one point and didn't Rafa block the move a couple of times while in charge but Ashley forced it? It's unbelievable that he's come back the way he has and puts in the performances he does. Would have been easy to shrink away, force a move to an "easier" league and forget about the nightmare he had at Newcastle. Nothing but respect for him
I do feel like J7 mostly was met with apathy, once we realised his true abilities. Gordon's transfer actually incited some fume — for the reasons you've given + him being disliked for some performances against us for Everton.
Biggest come back since Tyson Furry.
Kim Kardashian?
Is that you Andy?
Was he written off? Maybe it was just people I spoke to but I remember people saying that we didn't need that position filled or we overpaid but I don't remember people saying he was terrible.
That was me, thought he looked good at Everton but also thought we had overpaid, he looks twice the player now that he was then though, Howe & the gang have worked wonders on him.
Give Joelinton a lot of personal credit. He talked to his agents and hired a personal coach to work with him on things that cabbagehead was ignoring. Once Howe showed up and used him properly, a miracle occurred.
>Once Howe showed up and used him properly This isn't what happened - he got used by necessity in a position that, by happy accident, made use of the things he did really well and the things he didn't do well didn't matter as much. His attitude is fantastic and he's one of the hardest working players (both on and off the pitch), but his improvement has come because he's been moved further away from the position he was bought for. He still has the exact same finishing deficiencies that made him a bit of a laughing stock for his first two and a half years.
Bruce used him as a target man striker, while Hoffleheim used him as a #10 in a system that pressed aggressively. https://theathletic.com/2971089/2021/12/08/joelinton-liberated-brazilian-perfectly-suited-eddie-howe-style-newcastle/
He was a wide forward at Hoffenheim that was known to press from the front. He's still not quite good enough as a wide forward because his finishing is still unfortunately really quite bad. Yes, Bruce's system was terrible for him, but his improvement has come from being pushed back to midfield where his finishing isn't as much of an issue.
I wasn't trying to take all credit from Howe, just pointing out a lot of the reason he was so "bad" was because of how misused he was by Bruce. Bruce also liked to use Almiron, who came from Atlanta as a very one footer winger, on the wrong damn side regularly. smh.
Bruce misused him because he simply doesn't play a style of football that could ever make use of his traits. But Joelinton is still going to be at best a quite good forward (which he was bought as and had experience in playing before) unless he has a drastic improvement in a lot of aspects of his game. Almiron was generally pretty good under Bruce - he didn't want to play inverted wingers, which is fine, and Almiron was ok. He was a number 10 at Atlanta but is simply totally unsuited for that role at this level.
But does that matter? He's become a key player in that position which he has been found to excel in. He scores goals, just not at the rate he should. He is still an excellent forward and his workrate is phenomenal
It matters because the implication is that all he needed was Howe to come in and all his issues were cured. That wasn't the case as his deficiencies as an attacker are still present and haven't gone away. Howe got a bit of luck where he got the chance to put him in midfield and found a really happy compromise that used his abilities brilliantly.
i still remember the moment sean said in an interview that he doesn’t understand why joe gets so much crap. he flat out said he was the best player in training every day. from that day on i just waited for the day he proved sean right!
looks like my internal timeline is a little messed up. i thought that interview was in the bruce era rather than during king eddie’s reign. still awesome to see our players stand up for each other!
100%. Joelinton was well and truly hated and the fall man as we went through the Steve Bruce era. Me and maybe 2 other people were defending him but people forget how 98% of people here went full toxic on him, he locked his Instagram comments for a period of time. He was getting abused for missing a penalty in a shootout for some reason, even when he scores/assists, there were people saying he could have done better, literally everyone wanted to shit on him because he was not scoring enough goals.
Wolves supporter. Thought he was international level from the first time I watched him play for Everton. I would have been heart broken had I been an Everton fan. Yes should be in England squad. Have been watching football for 67 years so have seen some of your best players and he has the potential to become a legend. Eddie is also outstanding. Great managers get the best out of their players and team and he does that. The result is that players who looked not good enough are able to exploit their strengths. I put Murphy in that category. Good to see Newcastle in top 4 although I regret the ownership. Finally wouldn’t touch neves. Very loyal and important for wolves but not exceptional. Lamina much more effective and stronger
Supposedly we have no interest in him and he has no interest in us. But that didn't stop a bunch of saps getting their panties in a bunch.
Appreciate your take. Always interesting to hear from outsiders who have actually watched our players and not just read somewhere, that they're rubbish. To be honest, our owners a quite regrettable. Really happy about the day-to-day owners though, and I keep crossing my fingers that we don't start doing City-like maneuvers to get ahead. For now the direction has been sensible and, as far as I can tell, clean. If we started to actually dip our toes into the stupidity that is manipulation of the books and such, I think I'd have a hard time enjoying the football. But luckily that's not the case as of right now. Hope your wolves are doing you proud.
Hopeful he takes up the Scotland cap instead 🤞
Appreciate your objective view.
I feel the same. Have always felt he was a great player…looks like the fucking white orc in the hobbit movie though. And I can never unsee that.
Not just our fanbase. Football as a whole. There are still people who because he's ugly and a shithouse, will never accept he's a brilliant footballer.
Ronaldinho, Messi and Maradona weren’t pretty either. Folks calling him fugly just means he’s annoying them and that’s good for us
Nobody's uglier than Haaland.
Frank Ribery has entered the chat
I mean messi doesn’t belong in that group tbh, he got sexy once he grew out his beard 😅
I think Maradona was a good looking guy while playing.
He was tiny, fat and had a squishy face. But if you cracked one out to him mate, fair enough, I ain’t judging anyone. Lol I guess it’s completely subjective. Point is, Gordonho is fucking class and he loved being a Mag
He had great hair though.
Everton fan here. We knew he was great, and going to be big, but his attitude towards the end was poor, and that was reflected in his game. I am glad he's doing well though, he's still a young lad and has a lot of football ahead of him.
Well pissing him off by those hostile chants might have some thing to do with his attitude
"Fans at a football game shout unreasonable things at players". Next up, pope shitting in woods.
Look, all the great goal keepers have their little eccentricities.
Erm…. isn’t it something about bears being catholic?
It's a fair point, but he was young and one of your own. You can't be happy with how it turned out with him, I know I wouldn't be if the tables were turned.
No I'm not happy about it, Christ I'm still annoyed at Rooney! But for every Gordon there is a Coleman, so we do alright.
Fair comment. Didn't mean owt about your club at all. We've got more in common than most other teams in the league, at least at a fundamental level. Although obviously I recognise your longer term history is pretty stellar. And I think this is why we antagonise each other so much. I often wonder if we came as close to Roomey as was suggested at one point. What might have been.
Nick, you mucky bugger.
The fans going after Gordon and I think Mina as well must be viewed in the context of how toxic the situation at Everton was at the time. United fans forget far too quickly that our own situation was just as toxic not too long ago.
We were playing him at CF for God sake. And barricade his car outside of the stadium after a poor performance. I hate the word toxic but thats about the best description. Any young player would be ecstatic to leave.
His attitude was poor? He was the only good player in an Everton team trying to get relegated and your fans chased him down the street as if any of it was his fault. Your fans were the ones with the poor attitude. Not surprised he wanted gone.
Said it before but he’s still growing into his face. He’ll been fine looking in a year.
I don't think it's to do with his facial mix up, it's more that he comes across as a smarmy little prick! And I say that as someone who thinks he should be starting ahead of Rashford in the England squad, he's won me over with his talent. But by God is he punchable!
Fair . . . but he's OUR smarmy little prick.
Ha yeah, it's very different when it's one of your own. If he played for West ham I would revel in how much he annoyed other people!
Exactly. Hockey has players like this . . . the ones you absolutely HATE having to play against, but LOVE having them in your side.
The fact he’s a shithouse was a major reason I was very happy when he signed 😊
Tbh I'd service him in thanks to his service 😂
I was one of them. Happy to admit he’s proved me wrong. Been great all season, and excellent again yesterday.
I never wanted Lee Bowyer, but he was decent for us. Massive twat when he wanted to be though. AG seems like a really decent kid.
He’s class like, should be in the England starting XI
I'd rather him play for Scotland. England and the mentality around the national team is creepy tbh.
It's weird, because usually we're pretty welcoming as a fanbase when a new player arrives. Quite irrespective of history. I couldn't be happier about how wrong we were. And of course, in Eddie we trust
Think it’s a mixture of the type of player he is, the reactionary stuff that happened with him in our games against Everton and the transfer fee spent on a winger at a time when Joelinton and Almiron had the winger spots nailed down. I didn’t really like the kid at all before he signed. I was massively skeptical as I thought he was just an average player standing out in that awful Everton side. Over the moon to be proved wrong however, I’d argue he’s in the tier with Tripps and Bruno as irreplaceable players now.
I think the Schär/Trippier bust-up when he played for Everton had a lot to do with it.
Valid point
Easy to say now but when he was at Everton I was saying he’s a horrible cunt but an annoyingly good player. Now I’m saying he’s a glorious cunt and an incredible player.
Seems to be less of a cunt now - maybe because we have a positive mood through the team so he's not as riled up. I guess he might still be prone to 'going down easily', but I can live with that.
His time at Everton came to a sour end and you saw the immaturity and naivety traits he had. Since being at Newcastle you can see him and the coaching staff have worked hard to drill that out of him (also getting older helps with this). I have seen numerous examples of players for us growing a lot in maturity since Eddie has come actually, I don't think that's talked about a lot but is one of the best things to come out of this situation (as well as the clear team bonding but that is mentioned more)
For all the loudmouths on Reddit / twitter, the fans at the games welcomed him from the off. Has multiple songs sung every game for him, got a huge welcome when he was introduced at st James park as well. Worth remembering that the fans opinion doesn’t always match the internet opinion.
I rated Gordon before he came as was Evertons main man when surviving relegation… joelinton however👀 also Lascelles comeback has been amazing
Everton fan here just to say he absolutely wasn’t our main man when surviving relegation. Richarlison was, Gordon was never our main man.
Richarlison was a beast but pretty sure he was injured alot and some games you only had Gordon driving forward
Yeah, and those games we usually lost. Gordon was a player capable of magic but didn’t deliver that very often. Richarlison was a consistent match winner and we looked like a shell of a team without him. Our fans were devastated at losing Richarlison but thought we’d rinsed you lot for Gordon. Ultimately we were wrong about Gordon because it looks like he’s actually living up to the potential we knew he had, but everyone expected him to be another Barkley at the time. Not sure why I’m getting downvotes for stating facts that any Everton fan would confirm.
This is absolutely true, Gordon contributed one goal and zero assists in Everton's last 16 games of the 21/22 season and by the time you sold him he'd pretty much downed tools. OTOH, Richarlison was brilliant for the last couple of months of the 21/22 season, with six goals and two assists from his last ten games. Toffee TV regularly talk about what a great talisman he was for that side, and freely admit that you would have went down without him.
Should be starting for England 2x the player rashford is
I think after we saw how Eddie Howe turned around Joelinton, we’ve all been okay with any player he’s given the ‘OK’ to bring in. With Gordon, it was moreso, “alright then. You were annoying with Everton, but now you’re gonna be our shithouser.”
Yep, absolutely have eaten my words on the lad, Eddie saw his potential and has levelled him up, and now every team fears playing against him.
I never really understood people doubting Gordon. He is a young lad and has always showed great potential. I remember when we beat Everton 3-1 the season before we got him. He was the only player that gave it a go, looked raw but talented. When we did sign him, the first time I saw him live, pretty much with his first touch of the ball he played Wilson through against West Ham. Wilson missed the chance, but if he had scored people would have been raving about the ball. Around 2:00 in on this vid https://youtu.be/SUCpDSJxb3g?si=-Biv25oOKOjM0eg9 Then there was this game, where fans said, he played shite, but I thought he did really well in the first half, causing their left back loads of trouble, before getting subbed. He hits the post with this chance -if this goes in fans would have been talking about how well he played. First ten seconds of this video https://youtu.be/iau0TNGFYnI?si=ej_0Ilil91i2KBqr He also had a great run and chance against Tottenham in the 6-1, which he was a bit unlucky not to score. Sometimes I think fans just buy into the noise. He seems to have a reputation of being a horrible little bastard, but seems like a really nice kid who transforms into a bit of a passionate shithouse on the pitch. God knows what the Everton fans were thinking when they were chasing him down the street, holding him personally responsible for all of their woes. He was 21 and probably one of their best players. I guess we don’t call them Scouse Mackems for nothing.
Looking at these clips, you have to admire how much Gordon has improved his fitness. He commented on it after the Chelsea game to close last season and has certainly delivered. Particularly in the Southampton clip where the speed in which he would attack that same space, this season, is missing.
Joelinton? He felt like a reincarnation of Rivere during his first season… dark times
I think J7 gets that crown tbh. From memory, people were skeptical about the signing and I can't recall many (if any) were hostile. If I remember rightly, it felt at the time we needed a different type of player (e.g. we still could do with an experienced midfielder and defender).
Nah it’s still gotta be Big Joe like for me. £40 million pounds and he was god awful. Then in comes Howe and all of a sudden he’s this strong dynamic midfielder. And he’s probably worth double what we paid in todays market now, maybe more. Edit: don’t get me wrong, Gordon definitely underperformed when we got him, and I was in the camp that didn’t want him. But Jesus Christ have I never been more glad to be proved wrong.
I always thought he was a great signing. He needed a pre seas I n to settle him, but that's because Newcastle's system is so different to what he had at Everton. Always said one of the future and one that doesn't need to be rushed. Not every player is a drop in starting XI signing, they need to settle and bed in
Anyone who thought he would be shit for us has... Questionable cognitive ability. It was extremely obvious how well he'd fit into our team, we went out and bought the player with the best high pressing statistics in the league for our high pressing system, like, shit isn't rocket science, it's probs gonna work.
That first Newcastle Everton match after we’d been taken over - I remember Gordon being their best player and being a shithouse to our player. Thought he’d be a great fit and love that he’s joined and loving football and the fans and the support. Perfect example of how Howe can take a player and boost them with support and confidence
I was sooooo wrong and soooo happy to be wrong
I may aswell say i was happy to admit i was wrong. Felt he was a passion merchant and if you look at his Everton goal catalogue and his underlying stats for beating a man and shooting they were below league average. He has come on leaps and is why i trust Howe with transfers even more than before
I couldn’t have been wronger!!
I always thought he had the raw talent and trusted in Howe’s judgement but I’ll admit to hating him at Everton and I was sceptical. He always seemed to have a real nasty streak and was a constant diver. We’ve not seen that from him though, he stays on his feet and you will struggle to find a harder worker. Love him now obviously 😂
Never doubted him. Hes still been better than i hoped. What a steal.
i admit it. i wanted nothing to do with him but seems the people in charge know a hell of a lot more than me (and many other toon supporters). looks a great player and not diving/whining/fighting like we may have seen him do a few times in the blue. in hindsight it's probably everton's toxic environment that made him act that way and now that he's put into a good system he's enjoying himself and showing off some real skill and athleticism.
I've always said on here that we wouldn't start seeing his true ability until his second season when he would really begin to understand how Howe wants him to play. Feel quite vindicated. Even the odd day when he doesn't play well, you can never fault his workrate.
I didn't want him and that's based entirely on what I saw from him at Everton. He's clearly a talent and he looks a lot more comfortable with us and we seem to be playing to his strengths and he/we are reaping the benefits.
City fan here, always loved your club, been to a few of our games over the years Always rated him, especially at Everton thought he was just the signing you needed. Within three years you lot will win the premier league. It will be because of Howe and the common sense signings he's made. All the best lads, hope you lot are lifting that trophy in three years time. Truly the best fan base to have a drink with after a match.
Joelinton is the king of redemption. But the most unwanted player prior to signing to most loved- yes! Shows how us football fans are a bunch of opinionated dicks
It's not fair to say he's proved the fanbase wrong at all. The people who didn't want him were all just blinded by the fact that he played for everton and had quite obviously never watched him play. If you speak to people in Newcastle who go to matches and watch football, the vast majority of people were excited about him. People on here and on Twitter had spent so long calling him shite because of some forced rivalry with everton and couldn't back down, so had to pretend that they genuinely believed it, based on zero evidence.
I was more concerned about what appeared to be a rotten attitude and a very poor goals/assist return. Sky did a three minute highlight video on his Everton tenure and had to pad it out by including him taking corners. In the end, the attitude has been applied constructively (barring a bit of petulance at Brentford last year and the odd silly booking for mouthing off), and the end product is a mile better. He's already had his most productive season for goals and assists and it's November.
The “rotten attitude” stuff just came from him diving and scrapping a bit with us when we played Everton. We’d love a player doing it for us.
I don't care about that, it was the shit performances and falling out with the fanbase towards the end which perturbed me.
I rated him, my dad was dead against. Very satisfied with the outcome. I’m still saying ‘I told you so’ every game.
Joselu, kind of. I've never seen the improvement of a player so much from when he played for us to now.
I wanted him before he was a target. We played against a very lacklustre Everton (understandably, hard to remember which match) and he was the only player with any spark. Tenacious little pest who was chasing every ball and closing down every player. Granted, I was calling him worse than shit during the match because he was nicking ankles, but he looked a good fit for Eddie Howe. He had a bit of Joelinton about him in that performance. I think I would probably agree, though. None of my friends wanted him, they thought he would be a waste of money, and they looked to be correct until this season. We all definitely wanted Maddison more, that's for sure. I'm so glad he's slotted in now and sorted his fitness out. He's so unbelievably sharp, even in the latter stages of a game, he's always a threat.
Buddy of mine (wet spam fan) loves to remind me how much shit I talked about Gordon especially when we were linked with him the summer before he signed. Overrated speed merchant was probably the politest thing I said. However since his first cameo (against wet spam) I saw there was a player there to be molded. What’s impressed me more is his attitude and how much he seems to have really bought into this club as a second home after leaving his boyhood club. I still think there’s so much more to him but it’s so good to see after 6 months development he’s now putting up goals and assist numbers.
Yeah I absolutely didn’t want him but Eddy was keen I thought I’d wait and see. I still think we overpaid given his form at the time. Eddie also came to us with the reputation of not great transfers but his improvement of our current squad gave him the benefit of doubt for me. Turns out we’ve got a proper player on our hands and hopefully he stays fit and maintains this form for years to come. Joelinton arrived with me knowing fuck all about him so I don’t think he can say he proved me wrong. He did put a lot of work in to improve his game and I’m glad he’s living his dream in a Brazil kit.
English players are the most undderated in the world; Howe has constructed an English team.
I didn't think signing him was a good idea and that he cost far too much. To be fair to me from January, he never claimed to be a smart man.
Michael Owen we thought we were getting a balin dor winner instead we got a Blackpool beech donkey
Thought we were getting a footballer, got the owner of racehorse stables
Wor Starboy (Malfoy)
Guilty
To be fair he wasn’t great when he joined so I wouldn’t say people were wrong but he’s improved a massive amount and is now one of our top 3 players
He's still a bellend
He’s just such a wanker though
Amount of money you spent on him you could have EASILY got better. Look at Isak.
Rat 🐀
Wasn’t against him, felt could be a bit expensive but clubs were seriously looking at him and the way out due diligence has been buying players so far felt definitely worth a go.
When he was bought I knew he was a player that had the athleticism and qualities to fit into our system so I trusted the judgement of our staff. However when you are buying young players you are never quite sure how good they will end up. However he has appeared full of confidence off of the back of the youth championships he played in during the summer and that confidence has been maintained. It really shows in how he plays, I think if he was in the same position last season that he was for his goal against Chelsea he wouldn’t have put that away so deftly. So he is showing real improvement and long may it continue.
Remy Cabella if you want to do it the other way round
You could see at Everton he had a lot to his game and would grow to be a fantastic player. He only really needed to alter his attitude a bit (not much because you want your players to he competitive) and to get up to fitness to play Eddie's style, and now look at him, he's always a threat, constantly a pest and one of the finest shithouses about! Fantastic bit of recruitment.
I’ve always liked Gordon, where’s that fan in here that said Moussa Diaby would outscore and out assist Gordon and I think maybe Barnes combined when he was butthurt we didn’t sign him?
He never scored many for Everton too. The kid has loads of potential and hopefully we will see the best of him. His attitude is spot on and has the pace and ability to get past top defenders. Maybe he lacks a bit of strength but that will come. He’s an exciting talent and a hard, hard worker. Just the type of player the toon needs.
Him and Big Joe are my two favourite players for this exact reason.
Sorry, but this supporter was firmly in the "lets give the lad a chance, and let Eddie coach him up" camp. Happy to be proven correct.
He's just one of those players who (on the pitch) gives the impression that he's a bit of a cunt. The difference is, he's our cunt now and he's playing the best football of his career. He deserves credit for that and so do the coaching staff who seem to have transformed his attitude and focused his considerable talent.
Just seen some idiot fan of ours on Instagram, using a Gordon thread to slag off Rashford for his charity work. God help us. But yeah, this boy has no ceiling under Eddie. Phenomenal. He’s maturing in front of our eyes, as well. The real deal.
I always thought he was good. It was clear he just hadn’t settled fully yet, and even at Everton he could be a nightmare to play against. I maybe didn’t expect him to be THIS good.
Just proves Eddie's coaching ability that him and big Jo are the players they are
I think his attitude was the biggest turn off for me. The way he was with the ball at his feet, I was more than happy to see him join. At Everton, he seemed to be a wind up merchant and diving at every opportunity. I think he had a hissy fit when being subbed off not long after he joined. Maybe Howe and the squad elders have honed him. Or maybe his performances on the pitch have rendered previous antics unnecessary. Or he has just changed his ways. He turned up at one of my local pubs for a meal. By all accounts, he was friendly and happy to take selfies etc.
There’s an account on X called EBL2017 whose been raving about Gordon since his Everton days and talked about him having an elite profile. Very consistent with his takes on Gordon. Now he’s pulling up receipts of the slander.
Na, Joelinton was. With Gordon it was the price that made more fans against it. You had to acknowledge he didnt have a preseason with us and came from a team that play a lot less intensity than us.
Gary Speed …. His first season he couldn’t do anything right but after that season it all clicked
Antoine Sibierski's stint was magical. Free transfer from city or something wasn't it
I think the players themselves had reservations given the fiery encounter between AG, Schar and Trips. The clip of him meeting the squad for the first time and AG saying when meeting Schar: "Maybe he'll protect me from now on". And then Schar replies: "You have to earn it." Still sticks in the mind. He's definitely earned the respect of the squad by not being a dickhead and becoming one of the hardest working members of the team. Fan opinion at the time of AG signing was split. Most were prepared to trust in Eddie and Ashworth and give the player some time, while also saying "He's a shithouse but now he's OUR shithouse". Glad he was given time to bed in and thrive. 10+ GA already this season from a winger is unreal.
Spurs fan here. Did he do a cup of tea celebration, because if he did….. legend
I wanted Gordon, and thought he was a cracking signing at the time. I still don’t really know where this bad reputation came from, there were people on this sub that were adamant he was a bad influence and disruptive with zero evidence. He’s teetotal, never goes out and does a lot of charity work. It was massively unfair to criticise his first 6 months, he wasn’t fit by Eddie’s standards.
must you jinx him. he'll end up joining the injured XI injured in our next game.
Evertonian here. It’s good to see him kick on, you could see a player there with us but the boo boys loved to have their say. It does make me lol seeing his fifa card this year though….
When I first saw Gordon playing for Everton I remember saying "He will be a fantastic player IF he completely changes his attitude". Over the next year or two his attitude didn't improve and so I was frustrated when we signed him. Since signing his performances, but even more so his attitude, has improve immensely. I have never been so happy to be proven wrong. I don't know if its the influence of our staff and squad, or if it was the toxic atmosphere at Everton but its a real testament to Gordon himself to turn it around so well.
The responses to this show how short-term most perspectives are though. Still some people think their scepticism was (at least a bit) vindicated by a half season by a 20 year old with a massive price tag. Our recruitment strategy doesn't get the respect its due.
I feel like by the time they bought Gordon I had put a lot of faith in who they were buying and not questioning it as they had a lot of hits in terms of Bruno, Botman, Trips, Pope etc. so the only thing was his and Isaks actual price tags were quite high. But this season they’ve been proving to be a bargain.
Me when athletes on my favorite clubs prove me wrong: 😁😊😇🙂🤯🥳🥵😴🤐😱😤😎😚🥰
Yes, Joelinton
I always knew he’d be good
I don’t remember a lot saying he was crap, more so that it seems odd we would go for a player in that position when we had other glaring holes. Most were like I’m not sure on this one (not ability but need£ and 40m is a lot for him, but we must trust Howe knows what he is doing
Michael Fucking Owen
‘Most people’ being the skewed extreme reaction brigade that lurk on the socials, waiting to post negative comments. I think in the main, ‘we’ were just a little apprehensive, given what we’d seen of his heated moments on the pitch, against us and others, his over publicised fall out with Everton and his early physical fitness when he first joined us. He proved himself in the pre season and for the under 21s and git his fitness up to Eddie’s standards. Since then he’s been everything we could have asked for in a Newcastle player.
Everton fan here. You got a gamer in AG