Apparently refusing to sign a new contract at Newcastle, The Times are reporting that Udinese are front-runners to land his signature (https://twitter.com/TimesSport/status/1267863485884649477). If Watford were to sign him we'd likely owe Newcastle a decent amount of compensation. If however Udinese were to sign him, the amount of compensation drops significantly. Wonder if Udinese are gonna do a classic Pozzo bamboozle and loan him straight back to us before joining us permanently a year after? Or will he actually play for Udinese?
Those cunning Pozzos. We're pretty well stocked in CM still, especially if Gueye does end up joining us. Also Longstaff could probably do with regularly first team football at the moment at his age, especially as he's been behind his older brother in the Newcastle pecking order. I'm not sure how Udinese's midfield is at the moment, but I suspect that he'd get more game time there, so I'd guess the plan would be for him to spend a season or two there, and then depending on how he gets on bring him over here once we might have more space.
If the report is accurate - when cross-referenced with various sites online that report Udinese wages, it would make Longstaff their highest-paid player. Could be wrong but that would indicate him coming to us at some stage I’m sure. Rodrigo de Paul is an Argentinian international - not sure he’d be happy with a young Newcastle reserve coming in and being paid more than him.
Quite. Unless we go down I've no doubt he's coming to us (assuming he signs for Udinese and rejects the Newcastle deal). No way are Udinese going to pay a 20 year old English Premier League homegrown-eligible export that amount a week with the intention of him joining their own squad.
Pretty sure that someone at Udinese has said some of their players (including de Paul and Fofana which might leave them light in midfield) will be getting sold. It is a huge amount of money for someone with only 6 PL appearances, but then again they'll be saving on the transfer fee. Unless we get Longstaff and Gueye goes to Udinese.
I said earlier that I believe there will be a lot of movement between the two clubs this season. Pereyra is already being linked back along with Sema. So why not advantage out of the situation.
"Newcastle United have increased their contract offer to midfielder Matty Longstaff in a bid to persuade him to reject a move to Italian club Udinese. The younger of the Longstaff brothers had initially been offered around £15,000-a-week to sign a new five-year contract, but his head has been turned by an extravagant package from Udinese which would make him the Serie A side’s highest paid player on £30,000-a-week. It is also believed the deal in Italy would see the player and his family receive a large signing-on fee worth more than £2 million. The 20-year-old, who has started just six Premier League games for his hometown club, currently earns just £850-a-week and contract talks have dragged on for several months. Telegraph Sport has learned that Newcastle have now increased their offer and are willing to pay him more than £20,000-a-week. However, as things stand, this has also been rejected by the youngster and his advisers, which include his father, the former Great Britain ice hockey international David Longstaff. The suspicion is that although Longstaff will initially move to Italy, he will eventually join Premier League club Watford, who are also owned by the Pozzo family, potentially as soon as January 2021. This is because Udinese will have to pay less in compensation to Newcastle as he will be moving abroad, than Watford would have to pay in compensation if he were to move directly to another English club. However, there has been no indication from Watford at this stage that they are interested in the player and he could remain in Italy for the length of the five-year contract he will sign. It remains to be seen what Longstaff’s long-term prospects in Italy would be if he does sign for Udinese, but he will be free agent at the end of June, with Newcastle due just £400,000 in compensation, even though the Premier League season will not have finished. If Matty does change course and sign the contract on offer at Newcastle, he will be paid more than his older brother Sean, who will also demand a new contract on the same terms. Neither have been first choice in midfield this season and Newcastle intend to sign at least one more central midfielder in the summer as this is a position manager Steve Bruce has publicly revealed he is keen to address. The situation has been complicated by the ongoing attempt by a Saudi Arabian led consortium’s attempt to complete a £300m takeover of the club. Telegraph Sport has been told that the prospective new owners are aware of the Longstaff situation and believe the offer made to him is a fair and reasonable one. However, it could be that both brothers are worried about a lack of first-team football next season, whether the takeover goes through or not." https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...tty-longstaff-wage-offer-hope-rejectsudinese/
Is he worth it ? On the basis of six games you can hardly tell. His father was an excellent defenceman and badly missing from Team GB. Given the players Newcastle are being linked with to come into their midfield his prospects would be severely curtailed. It is a no brainer that he would be looking at options to move. The figures are ridiculous but despite this pandemic the bubble does not seem to be bursting and par for the course.
This potential transfer was discussed yesterday on TalkSport including a contribution from Sam Allardyce as a former Newcastle manager. Amazingly nobody flagged up the relationship between Udinese and Watford and that Longstaff could end up playing for us, let alone the possibility that it was all a Pozzo ploy to get him on the cheap. All the focus was on the opinion that he shouldn't be leaving Newcastle at such a young age just for some extra money and that it was probably instigated by his agent.
Is he any good? I only ask as He does not seem that keen on our coaching staff https://www.waterstones.com/book/death-by-shakespeare/matt-longstaff/cait-fannin/9780995457201
Scored a cracking goal for them at the Vic one night. Gutted at the time but he become one of my favourite players in the Aidy promotion season. Wasn't his sister or someone pretending to be his sister on the forums for a bit?
As for Matty Longstaff... I fear the idea of maybe getting a player on the cheap disguises the fact that he's unproven to a large degree and it's a huge salary and signing on fee. I haven't seen enough in him to warrant that.
It's always a gamble on a youngster like him. Sinclair obviously hasn't worked out well, but was extremely well thought of by Klopp and Liverpool. I'm sure we've reclaimed some of the transfer fee from his loans. Longstaff though has produced in the premier league games he's played in. 2 goals in 7 for a very negative Newcastle team is nothing to be sniffed at. When I see some prices thrown around for young English players Matty Longstaff is an absolute bargain and Imho well worth the small gamble.
True but we've had some great players who unfortunately tarnished their skin playing for the scrum beforehand.
