Daniel Feliciano

Sat 26 March 2022 12:10, UK

The future of Everton Football Club looks pretty bleak right now, but there is a little shining light at the end of the tunnel in the name of Anthony Gordon.

The England Under-21 international has been by far the stand out performer for the club this season as they embark on an end of season run-in to try and avoid relegation.

But Gordon has shown with his level of performances that if any Toffees player is to come out of the season with any sort of credit, it’ll be him.

That continued on Friday night while he was on international duty with the England youth team, coming on as a substitute in the 70th minute and scoring in their 4-1 win over Andorra in a European Championships qualifier.

It was a brilliantly taken goal, as the ball came over from the wing and the 21-year-old connected with a sweet right-footed volley into the bottom corner.

As his ascension towards superstardom continues one thing became evidently clear even in a short 20 minute cameo, Everton cannot afford to lose him.

Relegation is a very real threat this season, with 12 games remaining and a three point gap separating them from the bottom three currently. But they still have to face Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Leicester (x2), Brentford, Crystal Palace and Watford.

That means they need something just short of a miracle to be able to survive, because it’s tough to see where any wins are coming from any time soon.

So when you start looking to next season, it’s easy to see an entirely different squad because most of this group won’t be looking to play in the second tier.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison and Jordan Pickford are almost guaranteed to leave after relegation, while Donny Van de Beek is unlikely to stick around and Dele Alli, Demarai Gray, Abdoulaye Doucoure, Ben Godfrey and others will generate interest too.

But one man the club must ensure they keep at all costs is Gordon. Richard Keys agrees too, calling him a ‘gem‘.

An academy graduate who has gone from strength to strength with regular football, he’s good enough for the club to rebuild their squad around entirely.

He would get the fans back on side, can lead the side to instant return to the Premier League and that would ensure the club is back on the right track.

Losing him would symbolise just how far the club has fallen and would make any sort of rebuild that much harder. He’s indispensable now.

In other Everton news, journo shares if Everton ace could lose international place with relegation and speculates transfer