I've wanted to post on Gordon for a bit. It's been a bit of a mad couple of weeks for him.
There seems to be an unusually high animosity towards him, that borders on the ridiculous. 12 month ago he was a lad who didn't get into a Preston team (albeit partially down to a new manger and position change) and was really on the fringes of the team. 12 months on, he won our player of the year scored soem critical goals and in a team full of players who at times threw the towel in worked his absolute socks off for the team, irrespective of his ability.
It seems like people have really made their minds up that he is going to be some sort of scapegoat before the season started. I have no idea why. He hasn't cost us a huge fee, he isn't taking up huge wages and he has shown the sort of attitude we would all want to see.
The first two games he has been fine. On both the games the commentators (impartial) have commented how well he has done and how he needs extra help. One of the teams we have played against have subsequently bid over 40m. Yet some people would have you believe he was poor the last 2 games. You throw in that he was playing out of position in those two games, for the good of the team and it gives a wider context of those performances.
He is clearly a very good player for us, when played in position, and arguably out of position, or best attacking outlet. He was inches away from scoring our first goal of the season and being the only player who has scored for us.
There is a wider question about at what point you sell any player. I don't think any club can be so brazen as to not have a figure it sells a player, and honestly a club in our position can't. A bid of around 50m fulfills that in my view. I suspect it may come in, and theclub would have to strongly consider it.
If it doesn't go through though, none of that should be taken out on Gordon. It's not the lad himself's fault that people have a certain value on him. He's not the one robbing you of 45m or whatever. he is just a lad, who played an important role in keeping us up, and probably making an enormous profit for the club. That probably needs to be factored in, in some of the evaluations that we have seen.