Eddie Howe has underlined Anthony Gordon's commitment to Newcastle United and revealed that the Magpies star has not had any 'fractious' conversations with him this summer.

Newcastle and Liverpool held talks regarding Gordon last month as the black-and-whites faced up to the prospect of a points deduction without bringing in funds in the final days of the financial year. However, Newcastle ultimately managed to raise the necessary capital through the sales of Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh, and the compensation fee Manchester United paid for sporting director Dan Ashworth.

There had been suggestions that Gordon's head could still have been turned - the Scouser supported Liverpool as a boy - but Howe is confident there won't be any lasting damage after the forward's campaign finally ended little more than a week ago.

"I'm confident he is OK," the Newcastle boss told reporters. "I think you can only judge Anthony on what he has given Newcastle on the pitch. He's given us everything. He's been committed.

"We've had no conversations over the summer where it has been fractious or negative. He's always been the Anthony Gordon who has given absolutely everything to Newcastle and I want to make that clear to all our supporters."

Newcastle certainly won't want to lose Gordon. The England international was directly involved in 22 goals last season and also won six penalties - more than any other player in the top-flight.

"I'd welcome him back with three arms if I had them!" Howe quipped. "He's such an important player for us.

"We didn't want to lose anybody. Why would we want to lose our best players? We fought really hard to make the right decisions in those last couple of weeks.

"It was very, very difficult, but Anthony is an integral part of what we're doing. He needs a bit of a break. He's had a long season and the Euros will have been emotional for him as well. Hopefully, by the time he comes back, he's ready to go."

"It was a very difficult last couple of weeks of June," Howe added. "The rules forced us to do things we didn't want to do. I want to make that clear we didn't want to sell any of the players we sold. Absolutely not.

"Why would we want to sell any of our promising young players? Elliot's someone we've invested a lot of time in and it defied the inner feeling we all had associated with the club. It felt wrong.

"We wish Elliot and Yankuba all the very best in their next football clubs. It was a really difficult time, there was a lot of uncertainty and we didn't know what was going to happen.

"In the end, it's been as good as we could have hoped for in terms of us not being hit with a points deduction, which was, of course, of paramount importance that we did that. But we need to make sure we're not in that position again."

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