It's official - Matty Longstaff is no longer a Newcastle United player
The Chronicle have confirmed that Matty Longstaff is officially no longer a Newcastle United player - and it's hoped a decision on his future will be made 'soon', with offers from NUFC and elsewhere still on the table.
The 20-year-old’s contract expired at the start of August after agreeing to a short-term extension that kept him at the club over the final nine games of the extended 2019/20 season.
Longstaff has impressed when given the chance to shine in his breakthrough campaign and scored a memorable winner on his full debut against Manchester United back in October.
However, contract talks that were expected to be a doddle stalled dramatically, with our rumoured offer of around £20,000-per-week deemed unacceptable. A £30,000 offer from Udinese is also thought to be on the table, and is perhaps the reason his camp are pushing for more.
His options beyond that look limited, which may yet see him return to our offer with his tail between his legs and end up accepting what would still be a VERY good deal for a player who's still only racked up a handful of appearances at senior level!
Now that the takeover has fallen through and Bentaleb looks unlikely to sign permanently, the possibility of first-team football on Tyneside looks realistic if he were to sign fresh terms. After all, Bruce was giving the younger Longstaff brother every chance to shine until contract talks began to stall and the situation was allowed to play out in the media without any resolution.
I get a feeling that he may drop down to the Championship for game time - a level that he will no doubt excel at given how capable he looked the odd time we saw him play in the top flight.
It is in every Toon fans best interest for quality, young, local players that come through our academy to stay here and succeed, but unfortunately I am past caring with the Matty Longstaff situation.
There is no doubt that he is a talented player, but it appears he has allowed money and outside influences cloud his judgement so soon after 'living the dream', with Bruce even calling the deal he has been given as a “fantastic offer”.
The innocent, baby-faced, starstruck youngster that burst onto the scene back in October certainly doesn’t carry that reputation anymore - not with me anyways. It’s a shame but that is where we are at with the modern game, where loyalty and true love for a home town club is a dying asset for the 21st century footballer.
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