The 21-year-old left winger broke into Everton’s starting line-up under Benitez in the 2021/22 season and eventually helped the Toffees survive in the Premier League in that season.
Gordon was the subject of interest in the recently closed transfer window and has joined Newcastle United for a transfer fee of £40m with £5m in add-ons.
Benitez feels Gordon has something special in him and stated that many players with his potential fail to live up to it because of the wrong environment and mentality.
However, the former Everton boss stated the new Newcastle star was always eager to learn and recalled that Gordon used to put in extra effort following the instructions given to him.
“He has something”, Benitez told Chronicle Live.
“These players that have so much potential, not too many of them achieve what they want because the environment is not right or the mentality is not right.
“But, in this case, the spirit that we had with Anthony was so positive.
“He was very keen to learn.
“He was listening to us.
“He was doing extra work.
“Everything was positive.”
Eddie Howe’s will welcome David Moyes’ West Ham United to St. James’ Park on Saturday and Gordon will be hoping to make his Newcastle debut against the Hammers.
While Everton banked an up front £40m from selling Gordon, they did not make any signings in the January transfer window.
