Rio Ferdinand has instructed Anthony Gordon to hold showdown talks with Everton chiefs if his heart is set on a big-money move to Chelsea.
Gordon, 21, is the priority attacking target for the Blues at this late stage of the summer transfer window and the West Londoners are willing to pay up to £60million for his services. The young forward opened the scoring as Everton drew 1-1 at Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday and appeared to wave goodbye to the visiting fans after his goal.
The allure of playing Champions League football is enticing him to Stamford Bridge but time to complete the transfer is quickly running out ahead of Thursday's deadline. Ferdinand believes the only way the Toffees will part ways with their "crown jewel" is if Gordon bluntly informs manager Frank Lampard and chairman Bill Kenwright of his desire to leave Goodison Park.
"Is he worth that? Probably not right now," Ferdinand told his FIVE YouTube channel of Gordon. "Could he eventually be worth £60m? Potentially, he has the chance to do that. This kid is the crown jewels at Everton at the moment.
"They don't want to see him go because of what that will do for the morale of the football club and the fans in the stadium. It's difficult but if he wants to go, he's got to go in and show the balls to go to the manager and the chairman and say 'I want to leave' and see how they deal with that."
Ferdinand knows a thing or two about what it takes to force through a transfer after successfully securing a £30million transfer from Leeds to their great rivals Manchester United in 2002. The former England defender waited in the office of then-Whites chairman Peter Risdale for six hours to ensure he made the switch to Old Trafford.
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Lampard and Kenwright will hope the situation surrounding Gordon does not come to that, while the former has warned the player he will "see a different side" to his character if he goes on strike at Everton. "Anthony wouldn't, shouldn't, couldn't do that with me," the Everton boss said on the subject of Gordon refusing to play.
"If he did try and sit out a game he'd see a different side to me. No doubt about that and I think he knows that. I'm not playing the hard one, it's just that it would be so alien from what I'd expect from him. I just know that's not him. At the same time he's not a robot and all this attention is difficult. I understand that, I was that ambitious young player.
"That's the beauty of Anthony. Hard-working. He wants to be better. He wants to do what he did [against Brentford], which is score goals, run for this team, and that's why he's a delight to work with. So there was never any idea that Anthony would act that way."
