How Newcastle missed out on a Geordie jewel

ELLIOT Anderson's controversial exit from Newcastle United didn't seem right then, and it certainly doesn't seem right now.

- By LEE RYDER Chief Newcastle writer [e-mail] @lee_ryder

Saturday night was bittersweet for Toon-based football fans as England strolled to a World Cup qualifying victory over Andorra with Blyth lad Dan Burn, Tino Livramento, and Anthony Gordon all involved.

But the star of the show was undoubtedly a lad from Whitley Bay in young Anderson, a man who now has the football world at his feet.

It hasn't been a straightforward journey for Anderson after awkwardly departing a Scotland senior camp to keep his England hopes alive in 2023 before back injury in the same season forced him to miss 27 games at a time when he could have made a first-team place his own amid Sandro Tonali's FIFA ban for illegal betting.

Injuries aside at Newcastle United, they had a star in the making firmly in their grasp until the ex-Wallsend Boys Club youth player had to be sold in order to fend off PSR agony.

One Geordie summed up the state of the nation on Monday morning when muttering: "I'd have taken a six-point deduction to keep him."