Gary Neville will have irked Everton fans through an 18-word defence of Anthony Gordon after the Newcastle star was criticised for not starting the Magpies’ 1-1 draw with Barcelona on Tuesday.

Gordon was introduced in the 67th minute after illness kept him out of the starting lineup for the visit of Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie, when the Magpies suffered the crushing blow of a stoppage-time equaliser from Lamine Yamal after Harvey Barnes had given them the lead.

Alan Shearer insisted “it would have taken something extraordinary” to prevent him starting the game, Wayne Rooney said Gordon “shouldn’t be there” if he wasn’t well enough to start and Keane – before exposing himself as a fraudin a stunning act of hypocrisyon The Overlap– did his exasperated bit as Neville looked to defend the England international.

Keane asked: “How can you be ill and come on for half an hour? It’s bizarre, isn’t it?”

When Gary Neville defended Gordon, Keane added: “Oh Gary, because you did an interview with him last year and you thought he was a really nice lad! How can you be ill, but come on for half an hour?

“You hear managers every week say ‘He’s not fit enough to start, but he’ll be good enough for the bench’. Something might happen after five minutes. I don’t get it. If he’s that important, start him and take him off after half an hour.”

And Neville then further defended Gordon – exemplifying how easily the summer misdeeds of Alexander Isak and Yoane Wissa might be forgotten – by insisting he’s a player whose commitment can’t be questioned.

“Anthony Gordon hasn’t got a history of not turning up,” Neville said. “He turns up, to be fair to him.”

Not in January 2023, he didn’t. After Everton rejected bids from Chelsea the summer before they eventually agreed to the winger’s ￡45m sale to the Magpies, but only after Gordon had refused to train for three days straight.

Reflecting on a sour end to his Everton career soon after leaving Goodison Park, Neville asked Gordon if it “had to be like that”.

“How it ended didn’t have to be like that, the statement – I don’t even know what you would call the statement they put out – it was small,” Neville said. “It was almost as if they were playing to the crowd, Anthony wants to leave, we have let him go, almost like they were discarding you a little bit. It didn’t have to be like that, surely?”

Gordon replied: “It didn’t. That’s the thing: a lot of what you see in the media is club-driven, and I didn’t care too much to change the perspective because I’m very comfortable in myself and how it ended up, and ultimately, I got what I wanted. I joined Newcastle.

“I did want to leave, but also, the club did have to sell me. The way it played out was that I was desperate to leave and that was never really the case, I just wanted to fulfil my ambitions. But I never was bothered about wanting to change people’s minds, if they believe what they read, it’s fine by me.”

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