The curious logic behind Bayern Munich's surprising move for Newcastle's Anthony Gordon

Anthony Gordon’s day as a Newcastle player seem to be numbered. On Tuesday, new reports suggested that Bayern Munich had made an approach for the England winger, formalising their long-rumoured interest – and Newcastle seem to be open to a sale.

The Daily Mail’s Craig Hope reported that talks over a transfer had begun, while Sky Sports Germany’s Florian Plettenberg claims that Bayern Munich have already offered Gordon a five-year deal. Newcastle, meanwhile, could earn as much as double the £40m they paid to sign him from Everton in 2023.

Few doubt the sincerity of Bayern’s interest at this point, but their evident desire to sign Gordon has raised a pretty interesting question: Why?

Why do Bayern Munich want to sign Anthony Gordon?

Gordon may be a proven Premier League player and an established starter for England, but few pundits would have him pegged as a truly elite left winger as it stands – good, certainly, but perhaps not great. Given Bayern Munich’s status, their interest seems to have caught many observers by surprise.

Given that the transfer fee could easily end up being in the region of £80m, it’s fair to wonder whether the German giants would be getting good value for money. After an immensely impressive 2023/24 season at St. James’ Park, when Gordon scored 11 league goals and added a further 10 assists, there is a sense that he has stagnated slightly. In the two seasons since, he has added just 12 top-flight goals and seven assists to his tally.

Bayern, meanwhile, have pieced together one of the most formidable attacking lines in Europe. The addition of former Liverpool winger Luis Díaz last summer has propelled them into the Champions League semi-finals and towards a routine Bundesliga title. Along with the blossoming Michael Olise, the supremely gifted Jamal Musiala and Harry Kane – arguably the best player in world football this season – Bayern have built a dazzling, immensely effective attack.

Given Díaz’s success, specifically, it’s difficult to see quite where Gordon fits, but the fact is that Bayern desperately need another left winger to offer Díaz some respite. Their only other natural in that role is a 30-year-old Serge Gnabry, who has been plagued by injury problems and is now usually deployed through the middle when he’s available.

That need for competition and rotation down the flanks has made a left winger Vincent Kompany’s number one priority for the coming summer transfer window, and while Gordon hasn’t had a particularly strong season he still has the traits that Bayern want - a combination of raw pace, ability to play close to the touchline and the willingness to press high up the field throughout the match.

That’s the same list of attributes that attracted Bayern to Díaz and Olise, neither of whom were regarded as being truly elite players before they moved to the Allianz Arena. Bayern are a side that learned to prioritise the system and to sign players who fit it, rather than trying to shoehorn superior players into a tactical set-up which might not suit them. This is a side who set a lot of stock by their analytics, and they say that Gordon is the right man for the job.

There are some qualms about Gordon’s fit for Bayern, perhaps most notably in the fact that he can be blunted by low blocks – which has been a bit of a problem for Bayern in recent times, especially in the first year of Kompany’s reign – but in many ways Gordon’s list of strengths and weaknesses maps very closely onto Díaz’s.

Neither beat men on the run with enough consistency to reliably break deep defensive lines open, but both know how to draw fouls and generate set-piece opportunities in one-on-one situations. Neither are especially precise passers or technicians by truly elite standards, but both have a habit of finding routes to goal – for themselves and others – regardless. Both have a bullish, pugnacious approach in the final third, on and off the ball, and will happily hassle and harry defenders from first whistle to last.

Gordon’s previous experience of working with Kane will have helped to make his case, as will his age – he is four years younger than Díaz – but this is fundamentally a deal based on his physical and technical attributes and the vision for how they complement Kompany’s ideology: The high-pressing, possession-focussed gameplan which has made Bayern one of the very best sides in Europe right now. If Díaz worked out, there’s little reason to believe that Gordon wouldn’t too. That’s the theory, anyway.

Is Gordon definitely leaving Newcastle this summer?

That explains Bayern’s interest in Gordon, while Newcastle’s desire to sell can easily be explained by the financial benefits it will offer to a team with a lot of shopping to do this summer and relatively little breathing space within the Premier League’s spending rules. The missing piece of the puzzle is whether Gordon himself is keen to try his hand in Germany.

The 25-year-old has not reportedly expressed any desire to leave Newcastle and it’s unknown as to whether he wants a fresh challenge or a move abroad. If he isn’t sure about whether life overseas is for him, he may have some options, too.

Arsenal and Chelsea have both been linked with a bid in the gossip columns over recent months and while they haven’t made an approach as yet, Gordon is somewhere on both sides’ shortlists – and both clubs need a new left winger at least as much as Bayern Munich do. They could yet enter the equation.

Bayern are also known to be huge admirers of RB Leipzig’s dazzling young winger Yan Diomande, and reports in recent months tended to imply that the 19-year-old was ahead of Gordon in their own internal rankings.

They appear to have pumped the brakes on a deal largely because it promised to cost them upwards of £100m, a big gamble on a player with only one season of top-flight football under his belt, while Leipzig are reportedly attempting to tie Diomande down to a new deal. If something changes, it’s possible that Bayern about-turn and move for the Ivorian instead.

All of which is to say that this isn’t quite a done deal – but it does look likely to take place, and while it may seem like a surprise move on the surface it makes plenty of sense by their metrics. And those metrics have proven to be pretty effective so far.