There is, frankly, only one place to start with Anthony Gordon and it is not only because he is handed a pair of stabilisers as a present when he walks in to address the media – a reference to his much talked-about and laughed-about bike crash on Wednesday during England’s recovery day.
It is hard to ignore the cuts and grazes, especially the deep red one in the middle of his chin. There are some on the Newcastle winger’s nose and arms, while they are also all over his hands. When somebody goes to shake with him, he pulls away defensively, which does not suggest he is battle-ready for Sunday’s last-16 tie against Slovakia. It turns out to be wrong. He says he is completely fine. So what happened?
The way Gordon tells it, he was pedalling along the golf course at the squad’s base in Blankenhain the day after the 0-0 draw against Slovenia, when he had come on as an 89th-minute substitute for his first action of the tournament, and he was trying to take a video on his phone for his family. He was going down a hill on an electric bike that was rather faster than the ones in England, there was a bit of confusion about which brake to press and, the next thing he knew, he was into a patch of gravel.
“The bike has not just slowed down, it has fully come to a stop … and I haven’t,” Gordon says. “I have gone 10 feet into the air, chin first. I carried on and finished the bike ride, and when I got back to the camp I had to put the stuff on, which absolutely stung. That was the worst bit. To be fair, nobody had seen it and I didn’t press record so there were some positives! The moral of the story is that we spend too much time on our phones so it’s just to enjoy the moment without a phone.”
Gareth Southgate was a part of the sympathetic reaction. “He laughed,” Gordon says. “Like everyone else did. It wasn’t too serious. I could have been injured with the speed I was going down the hill, I could have ended up anywhere. It was on the golf course and I’ve managed to land on the only bit of gravel there was. So, really lucky in some instances and unlucky in others.” Full marks to Gordon for owning the error and also for the pledge that he made. Would he get back on the bike the next time? “Yes, I’ll get back on,” he says. “I won’t let that bother me.”
Gordon is not a guy to be deterred. In the face of any setback, large or small, it is always straight back in the saddle; following his processes, which draw heavily on visualisation and meditation, on motivational books such as Winning: The Unforgiving Race to Greatness by Tim Grover.
Gordon has a couple of others with him – The Art of Winning: Ten Lessons in Leadership, Purpose and Potential by the New Zealand rugby great Dan Carter and Never Finished: Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War Within by the retired Navy Seal and ultra-marathon runner David Goggins.
Gordon is deeply invested in the psychological aspect of performance; he is meticulous about his preparation and routines, feeling they bolster his confidence, which is naturally strong anyway – a product, he has said, of where he grew up in Liverpool. He also practises breathing exercises, even during matches.
One of Grover’s maxims is put to him: everything starts with doubt. “Everyone does naturally doubt themselves to begin with,” Gordon says. “But the key is noticing that, realising you’re having a war in your head and it’s not really real. You’re good enough to do anything. I have zero doubts when it comes to playing football. It’s more off the pitch and before you get on the pitch when the doubt creeps in … before games, the butterflies and the nerves.
“Anyone who tells you that doesn’t happen is a liar. But the players are self-aware enough to know they’re feeling that and change it during the game.
“There’ve been plenty of times during my career when I had doubts. I went on loan to Preston and hardly played. There were plenty of times at Everton when I couldn’t break through. My start at Newcastle wasn’t brilliant. But that’s the key part of any good athlete – your resilience, how you come back.”
“Pressure is a privilege,” the 23-year-old adds. “I’ve said that a lot with the staff when I’ve spoken about the [negative] media surrounding the team. The book I’m reading by Dan Carter … he uses that quote so that’s been on my mind. It means people are expecting things from you which means they think you’re good at what you do.”
Gordon is here because of his self-belief and ability, which combined to stunning effect last season; 11 goals and 10 assists in the Premier League. He only made his England debut in March against Brazil but there is a push in some quarters for him to start against Slovakia.
Gordon would provide speed and directness, a threat in behind, positivity and unpredictability to make something happen. He suffered an ankle injury against Manchester United in the penultimate league game of the season and was “a bit rusty and tired” when he started in the 1-0 loss to Iceland in England’s final warm-up match. Not so now. “I’m very up to speed,” Gordon says. “Since Iceland I’ve felt great in training.
“In the past two weeks I couldn’t have done any more. I’m in really good form, training well. I run a lot in training games so I never really lose out on fitness.
“Frustration is the wrong word [about hardly playing so far]. It’s more of a want to perform on the highest stage. That’s just the way I am, that’s my mindset. It just comes from my self-belief. I feel like I can impact any game in a positive way.”
The hope is that after the toil of the group phase, England can find a click against Slovakia, something to carry them to the quarter-final and truly ignite the tournament for them. “We’ve just got to come together and perform when the pressure’s high,” Gordon says. “There’s no more ‘next game, next game’. Now we have to step it up and be the team we can be. As players you’ve got to take responsibility and accountability, to harness the pressure in a good way.”
Has Gordon visualised scoring a crucial goal? One thing he did admit was that he now had a celebration in mind. “I’ll put the stabilisers next to the pitch and you lot [in the media] will get credit for the celebration. I will do it. You’ve got my word.”
