Newcastle spoke about swapping a second Liverpool player for Anthony Gordon, as well as Jarell Quansah

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Liverpool supporters got excited at the weekend as it looked like a move for Anthony Gordon could be in the offing.

The Reds have so far been exceptionally quiet during the summer transfer window, with not too much inkling that anything is in the pipeline.

But that changed quickly on Saturday, when it emerged that talks had been held with Newcastle over a possible deal for Gordon.

With Gordon reportedly very keen to join Liverpool and the Magpies in all sorts of trouble over Profit and Sustainability rules, a transfer looked like being a possibility.

However, with Newcastle attempting to bring in Jarell Quansah as part of the deal things did not progress.

Newcastle try for second Liverpool player

There was never any chance that Liverpool would have sanctioned the exit of Quansah. The academy graduate had a stunning breakthrough season last time out.

Quansah clearly has a big future at Anfield and had even edged Ibrahima Konate out of the team by the end of the campaign.

Despite that, if Newcastle were interested in taking a player in exchange for Gordon, there could have been several other candidates from the Liverpool squad.

With the Magpies perhaps on the hunt for a goalkeeper, maybe Caoimhin Kelleher could have been of interest. Would they have potentially entertained a direct swap for Luis Diaz, for example.

READ MORE: Anthony Gordon speaking to England teammates about Liverpool move this summer

According to The Athletic, there were indeed talks between Liverpool and Newcastle over swapping a player other than Quansah.

Although there are unfortunately no names named in the report, they do claim that ‘at least one other player was mentioned’ as being a possible makeweight for the Gordon transfer.

Even with a player going in the opposite direction though, Newcastle were reportedly looking for ‘far more’ than £80m to sell the 23-year-old.

With his high valuation and unable to come to an agreement over a player to go in the opposite direction, Liverpool made no formal bid. With their PSR problems resolved, it’s claimed that Newcastle ‘will not welcome’ a further enquiry from Anfield for Gordon.

Who could Liverpool have spoken about?

The only extra information given from The Athletic is that Newcastle themselves are looking for a new, right-sided centre-half this summer. Hence the interest in Quansah.

With the Liverpool youngster off the table though, perhaps the Reds could have offered another defender currently on their books.

Nat Phillips could have been an option, although the 27-year-old is possibly not of the level Newcastle are after.

Alternatively, maybe Sepp van den Berg would have garnered a better reaction. Van den Berg has made it clear that he’d like to leave Liverpool and would have a shaved a chunk off the Gordon fee.

From the wider squad, Kelleher would have seemed the most likely candidate, with some other of the Reds’ highly rated young players also potentially in the mix.

Anyway, it looks unlikely that this will be revisited, so we’ll quite possibly never know who was being discussed.