Premier League heavyweights Manchester United are highly unlikely to come back in for Newcastle United midfielder Sean Longstaff in January, according to the Manchester Evening News.
The newspaper claims that the Red Devils were looking at the 21-year-old as central midfield help this summer, but couldn’t afford the Magpies’ £50million valuation.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side are expected to go all out in the winter transfer window after receiving a significant cash injection from the sale of striker Romelu Lukaku to Inter Milan.
However, that extra cash won’t be finding its way to St James’ Park, with United seemingly having moved on from their interest in Longstaff.
OPINION
This is news that will see the Newcastle faithful likely breathing a huge sigh of relief. Although Longstaff hasn’t started this season in the spectacular form that he displayed when he came into the team last time out, he is still an extremely talented youngster who figures to be part of the Magpies’ future for many years to come – if they can keep hold of him, that is. Ultimately what Newcastle were doing by giving United a £50million valuation for the midfielder was putting themselves in a win-win situation. If the Red Devils agreed to the price and did the deal for Longstaff, then Steve Bruce’s side come away with a hefty chunk of cash to spend on reinforcing his squad. However, as actually happened, if United balked at the price tag then Newcastle would keep hold of their finest young player. So it worked out well for the Magpies and, as long as he can get back to top form, it will likely result in them picking up much more than £50million for him in the future.
