Journalist reveals the wage Matty Longstaff would accept to sign new deal at NUFC
According to Lee Ryder, Matty Longstaff would sign a new contract at St James' Park if the club offered him a deal in the region of £25,000 per week.
This comes from the Chronicle's latest piece on the 19-year-old's future, which reports that contract talks have now dragged into the winter break.
Ryder states that Matty has been assured by Bruce that he's a big part of his future plans, however talks between the club and player's representatives remain 'deadlocked' - meaning we continue to run the risk of losing him for a compensation fee of £400,000 this summer.
Here's a snippet from his piece, suggesting he'd sign if offered HALF the weekly wage we were prepared to offer Lille star Boubakary Soumare:
“United’s central midfield area though remains unclear going into the next few months with Ki leaving on a free transfer and attempts to sign 20-year-old Boubakary Soumare for a £35million fee from Lille suggesting that Newcastle are looking beyond the duration of Longstaff’s contract.
“Assuming Soumare, wanted by other Premier League clubs, would have picked up a competitive wage (around £50,000 per week) to leave Lille, it is believed that Matty Longstaff would have signed a deal already had he been offered even half as much."
Soumare may be one of France's top young talents and a player we were prepared to pay £35m for last month, but you can see why Matty's camp would be disheartened if we aren't prepared to offer him a fraction of the £50,000 the Ligue 1 midfielder would've received had he signed.
If Matty really is asking for around £25,000, this really shouldn't be a difficult deal to negotiate.
OK, he's only played a handful of Premier League games - so it would be wrong if he was asking to be one of our top earners - yet this wage could make him one of our poorest paid first-team players, meaning he's hardly demanding big bucks.
Considering we have outcasts like Colback and Saivet receiving a reported £35-40,000 per week, it's time we rewarded Matty Longstaff with a modest first-team wage given the impact he's made since being included in Steve Bruce's squad.
