When Everton walk out at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Thursday night, Anthony Gordon will not be on the pitch. The England winger moved to Barcelona at the end of May for a reported £69.3m, ending a Tyneside spell that began with one of the most bitterly contested January transfers of the Premier League era.

That 2023 move still colours any meeting between these two clubs. Gordon joined Everton’s academy as a schoolboy, broke into the first team in 2020, and left for Newcastle on 29 January 2023 for a fee of £40m plus add-ons. Toffees supporters felt he had forced the exit; he has never accepted that framing.

Speaking to Gary Neville on The Overlap in 2024, Gordon placed the decision firmly in the category of career ambition rather than rejection.

“My ambition is to be at the very top of football and I couldn’t do that where I was.”

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He told Neville the process of leaving had been emotionally hard, but that Newcastle’s trajectory left no realistic alternative. The club were in the Premier League’s top four when he signed, and he described their direction of travel as an offer he could not turn down.

Gordon also pushed back against the “desperate to leave” characterisation that had surrounded his final weeks on Merseyside. He told Neville that version of events had been shaped by his club rather than by him, and that he had chosen not to correct it in public because he was focused on his career rather than winning a narrative battle.

17 goals and a Barcelona exit

The decision looks defensible with hindsight. Gordon broke into the senior England squad, became a regular Newcastle starter, and ended the 2025-26 campaign as the club’s top scorer with 17 goals in all competitions, including 10 in 12 Champions League matches. Barcelona confirmed his signing on a five-year contract at the end of May 2026.

Willock’s winner at The Den sets up the return to Merseyside

Newcastle reached the fourth round with a 1-0 win at Millwall, Joe Willock settling the tie at The Den. Everton came through under David Moyes. The draw was made in September, and the fixture was later confirmed for a 7:45pm local time kick-off on Thursday 29 October, with Sky Sports broadcasting the match live.

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