Some concerning claims have emerged from Sky Sports in the last few moments regarding the future of Matty Longstaff.
According to their North-East correspondent Keith Downie, the 20-year-old has been offered £30,000-a-week to sign for Serie A side Udinese.
He reports that their offer is more than DOUBLE the offer on the table for Newcastle United and that he’s been mulling over it for nearly 3 months, with talks on Tyneside reaching an ‘impasse’ given the ongoing takeover situation.
Here’s what Downie’s had to say, which also reveals that he’s already flown out to Italy for talks over a potential 5-year-deal with Udinese:
It would be an absolute shambles to not only lose him for a compensation fee of £450,000, but to a struggling Serie A side who’ve blown us out the water with an offer over double what we’re prepared to pay him.
To think we’ve just announced profits of over £34m and have seen him flourish when handed the chance at first team level after several impressive years in our youth ranks, yet we’re offering him less than £15,000 per week.
It may still seem a lot to me and you and some would argue he should take it to keep the dream of playing for his boyhood club alive, but in football terms he’d be the poorest paid player in our first-team squad – yet he’s highly-rated, an England youth international and committing to this for five years.
If talks have broken down and his head has been turned, it seems only a takeover can keep him on Tyneside now.
What a mess.
