Gordon on earlier Hearts exit interest and Romanov claims

The Herald Scotland

4 days ago

After initial interest from clubs, he had signed a lucrative contract to remain at Tynecastle. However, it was becoming clear his abilities were elite-level, by this point the Scotland number one, and his exit was inevitable.
A transfer offer from Italian side Palermo was rejected and there were links to Celtic, Rangers, Arsenal, Aston Villa and Sunderland, among others.
In a recent podcast appearance, madcap former owner Romanov had claimed that, at the time of the new contract, he had given Gordon a blank cheque to remain at the club and fend off interest from Celtic.
He also claimed that he signed off on the deal despite the goalkeeper responding with a sum that dwarfed anything else at Hearts, or indeed in Scottish football.
The 42-year-old, now in his second spell at Hearts and about to receive a testimonial match against the Black Cats on Saturday, has had his say on what really happened.
Speaking on the Scarves Around the Funnel podcast, he said: "There's a small element of truth in that, but not a great deal from my side.
"Hearts made me a good contract offer to stay. It wasn't Celtic that were the interested party at that point, so that's wrong. But that makes a nice story because that's where I ended up going to play. So, it wasn't Celtic. There was another offer on the table. And Hearts more than matched it.
"It wasn't as if they went and blew the budget for everybody or for a huge amount from within Scottish football. I mean, that's just not true. I earned more at Celtic when I did eventually go there than what I earned at Hearts.
"So the amounts he's talking about or trying to refer to are probably a little bit inflated, or just maybe just leaving it to people's imagination, but it is not quite, not quite as large as he's making out."
Asked which club the interest really came from, he went on: "It was Rangers. So he's got the wrong half of Glasgow. They were interested at that point, but nothing ever happened there.
"I was happy to sign at Hearts. They made an equivalent offer and there was no point moving to Rangers at that point when I was earning the same, playing for Hearts, who I always wanted to play for and who I felt were really making big strides to try and bridge that gap and challenge for titles and for European football. So for me, that was a fairly easy decision."
The Arsenal interest appeared concrete, especially when then boss Arsene Wenger was quoted as being a big fan of the player.
At the time, the legendary Frenchman said Gordon had "presence and good handling and looks a very good goalkeeper to me."
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So, did the Premier League giants ever make any contact behind the scenes?
"No, actually. That was the extent of it," Gordon insists. "There was no offer or anything like that.
"So that was just a bit of stuff in the media really that they were chatting about, but nothing, nothing concrete. Nothing ever came of that."
Sunderland was the eventual destination for the Scotland star, at that point aged 24. At the time, Aston Villa were reported to have made a last-ditch attempt to persuade him to change his mind and head to the Midlands instead.
That was true, Gordon has now revealed, but there was never any chance of him changing his mind.
"The Villa thing was true," he admitted. "They were looking for a new goalkeeper that summer as well. They eventually signed Scott Carson. But that was a possibility.
"I was already in the room negotiating with Sunderland when that call came in and they were trying to get me out of that and get me down to Birmingham to discuss things with them. But Sunderland wanted to do the deal there and then. Not let us out of the building before it was signed.
"So they were very keen and showing all the interest. So I was more than happy to stay there and sign the contract and begin my Premier League career there."