Sean Longstaff

[Chris_R]

3 minutes ago, Scoot said:

 

Not the way Eddie was speaking a few weeks ago. Sounded like he was going.

We're not going to hold on to someone basically forever just because he's home grown.

 

He may have asked to go, that's the only reason he'll leave, but he'll be let go reluctantly in that case. I can't see a situation where we decide to sell him to "raise funds" or whatever because he's literally irreplaceable in CL squads.

 

Maybe once we've got 4 other over-21 academy graduates to keep him out the CL squad we can revisit this conversation but until then he's needed and we cannot buy a replacement.

[Rich]

11 minutes ago, Chris_R said:

Our 25-man squad for the CL needs to have 8 UK-trained players, and 4 of them need to be academy trained players. U21s don't count. If we sell Longstaff, we won't be able to register a full squad for the CL. We probably won't be able to register a full squad anyway, but we'll have one fewer player.

 

Genuinely crazy to think we will sell him. We won't. We're probably more likely to sell Bruno, because he can actually be replaced. Longstaff, whatever you think of his abilities relative to other squad members, is literally irreplaceable. Or are the people suggesting he's sold really thinking we should go into the CL matches with an unnecessarily-depleted squad?

Feel like I’ve read this post from you a few times now. As far as I’ve heard it via his dad, the club wants to shift him, but he’s more inclined to see out his contract.

[Bellis80]

He’s not going to play so having someone on the bench just for the sake of filling it is pointless if we could get money for him.

[Bimpy474]

I think we need to factor Sean's feelings into account. It's not as simple as we need to keep him, because of homegrown, trained at club etc.

 

He's not going to playing enough for a guy his age and experience, he might reluctantly want to leave so he can play. 

[r0cafella]

1 minute ago, Rich said:

Feel like I’ve read this post from you a few times now. As far as I’ve heard it via his dad, the club wants to shift him, but he’s more inclined to see out his contract.

Rich dropping his ITK knowledge. 

[Shak]

I think we’ll sell Longstaff if we can get reasonable money for him.

 

The 15m or so PSR boost over the next few years is probably more valuable to us than having an extra registered player that Eddie doesn’t want to use in the squad.

 

There’s also an element of doing right by the player if he wants to leave. Been made pretty clear to him the last couple of months that he’s no longer in Eddie’s plans, if he wants to leave and find first team football then I’d hope we will accommodate him.

[JT24]

Ship him out, bring home Forster and Krul. Get rid of Dubravka/Ruddy/Vlachodimos and have Trafford/Pope/2 club home grown keepers + ultimate hype man but not registered Gillespie. Easy, fuck off Paul I can do your job.

[Rich]

We could just extend Joe White for a year and keep him around to serve the purpose Longstaff likely will next season, should he stay.

[Chris_R]

3 minutes ago, Bellis80 said:

He’s not going to play so having someone on the bench just for the sake of filling it is pointless if we could get money for him.

 

We won't have someone on the bench though, we'll have an empty seat. Literally.

 

5 minutes ago, Rich said:

Feel like I’ve read this post from you a few times now. As far as I’ve heard it via his dad, the club wants to shift him, but he’s more inclined to see out his contract.

 

Sorry, I didn't realise we could only post our opinions once and then had to shut up.  

 

Maybe he'll stay, maybe he'll go. My opinion, based on what selling him would mean, is that we'll keep him but that's obviously only an opinion. Of course I could be wrong. I think we'd be silly to sell him though unless there's something really important we need to do with that money. Otherwise we're an injury or 2 away from having to actually play Schar in midfield against Juventus or someone and hope Botman's knee doesn't explode again or we're then out of central defenders too.

[Scoot]

So if we sell Longstaff we'd basically have to register 1 less player for the champions league?

[Rich]

It’s just a bit of a small thing to be so hung up on and to mention so frequently when the upside of shifting him for £15M or whatever could be so big.

 

Given Hall and Miley can be named on the B list, even if we don’t go for Forster/Krul/Woodman we’d still have 21 senior pros to register. Effectively two XIs plus a spare.

[Pilko]

Given that Eddie is never keen on too much turnaround in a transfer window, my thinking was we'd sell one of Willock or Longstaff this summer depending on the relative fee we could get. 

 

Rumours have been put out there suggesting Fulham will cough up £25m for Willock, whereas Sean with a year to go on his deal would fetch probably south of £10m you'd think. I feel like it's unlikely both of them go this summer because Eddie prefers gradual change to his squad, so if there's a club willing to pay around that fee for Willock I'd expect he might be the one to go before Sean does. I actually think both will stay.

 

As for who replaces that spot in the squad if one goes, we've not really been linked with many centre mids this summer other than loosely Ramsey from Villa. As Rich said there's a chance we think Joe White can contribute as 6th choice CM and bump Miley up in the pecking order. 

 

I know the journalists generally are scattergun at best when it comes to transfers but the one thing that's consistent in what they're saying is "3 or 4" first teamers incoming. We're fairly sure it's a keeper, a centre back, a right winger and a striker. A centre mid isn't really mentioned and the idea of going into a season with extra games a body lighter than we are now doesn't seem sensible.

[Bellis80]

14 minutes ago, Chris_R said:

 

We won't have someone on the bench though, we'll have an empty seat. Literally.

 

 

Sorry, I didn't realise we could only post our opinions once and then had to shut up.  

 

Maybe he'll stay, maybe he'll go. My opinion, based on what selling him would mean, is that we'll keep him but that's obviously only an opinion. Of course I could be wrong. I think we'd be silly to sell him though unless there's something really important we need to do with that money. Otherwise we're an injury or 2 away from having to actually play Schar in midfield against Juventus or someone and hope Botman's knee doesn't explode again or we're then out of central defenders too.

The empty seat makes so little difference when he’s not going to be used anyway.

[Scoot]

8 minutes ago, Rich said:

It’s just a bit of a small thing to be so hung up on and to mention so frequently when the upside of shifting him for £15M or whatever could be so big.

 

Given Hall and Miley can be named on the B list, even if we don’t go for Forster/Krul/Woodman we’d still have 21 senior pros to register. Effectively two XIs plus a spare.

 

Exactly. Such a short term view to think we wouldn't sell someone who won't play just because he's academy trained. 

 

Someone offers £10m plus, he's gone. Like I mentioned before, I remember Howe's comments from a few weeks back and it didn't sound like he thought Longstaff would be staying.

[Paully]

Yep, Eddie’s presser definitely sounds like he’s away 

[SteV]

How many players do we actually currently have that require registering on List A?

 

I make it 24. Out of those 24 you can most likely strike off Wilson. So 23.

 

Only 3 of current 5 keepers would (realistically) be getting registered, so 21.

 

Let’s assume we sign five new first team players, and sell Longstaff. We’d only be able to register a List A squad of 21. So I’d probably leave out:

 

Targett

Lascelles

Kraft 

Osula (assuming one of the new signings is a central striker)

 

All very hypothetical obviously, but hardly the end of the world that would necessitate Longstaff staying.

 

 

 

Edited June 1 by SteV

[jcat]

I like Longstaff. But the last thing he needs is another season sitting on the bench. 
 

[mondonewc]

If we lose one midfielder, lets say Miley comes in.

 

If we lose two midfielders, Willock or Willock's replacement comes in.

 

If we lose all three of our midfield we will go to a back 5.

 

So for Longstaff to have any reasonable chance of mattering we need to lose 4 of our midfielders, and even then Hall could play there, but we shouldn't sell him when it's pure profit in this PSR world we live in?

 

If we have four midfielders out good luck us beating anyone in Champions Leavue anyway, really don't think it's much of a factor when it comes to selling him or not. 

 

 

Edited June 1 by mondonewc

[ponsaelius]

41 minutes ago, Rich said:

It’s just a bit of a small thing to be so hung up on and to mention so frequently when the upside of shifting him for £15M or whatever could be so big.

 

Given Hall and Miley can be named on the B list, even if we don’t go for Forster/Krul/Woodman we’d still have 21 senior pros to register. Effectively two XIs plus a spare.

 

Hall hasn't been here long enough to be on the B list for what it's worth, he'd have to be named.

[JT24]

2 minutes ago, ponsaelius said:

 

Hall hasn't been here long enough to be on the B list for what it's worth, he'd have to be named.

Hall would still be U21, no?
 

[ponsaelius]

He would but you have to have been at the club X number of years since your 15th birthday. If it is two years he might qualify now actually.

 

Edit: It's 36 months so he wouldn't qualify. Same goes for the likes of Shahar, Harrison, Alex Murphy etc.

 

This is why our benches were so brutal in the CL last time out, we couldn't even name the decent youngsters we've signed on the B list.

 

 

Edited June 1 by ponsaelius

[SteV]

7 minutes ago, ponsaelius said:

 

Hall hasn't been here long enough to be on the B list for what it's worth, he'd have to be named.

Does his loan season not count as ‘being eligible to play for’?

[Theregulars]

I think you can make a plausible case for him to stay but it’s all premised on him barely getting a kick in meaningful situations. Maybe he can recover some form but it feels (and has felt for a season) that’s it’s time for both sides to part ways. I think too many of the crowd don’t want to see him and he knows that. 
 

Eddie can work miracles so I’d not rule it out, but it doesn’t seem rational currently to say that there are good footballing reasons to keep him. 
 

I think even the sentiment favours him leaving - it’s better for him to play regularly and i suspect it would be better for collective hearts to grow fonder after a period of absence. 
 

I think “good servant” is a bit patronising; he’s had some really good seasons or parts of seasons and been a useful performer in some good Newcastle sides. I don’t think I’ve ever seen enough consistently to say he’s even a bit-part player in a squad with aspirations of existing at the top table.
 

Sometimes it is just that way; our ceiling is now higher than his. It doesn’t need to be unpleasant or nasty, just thank you and genuinely best wishes. In that way we’re all too harsh on him.

[JT24]

Longstaff only ever appears to play well after having a run of games, that is so unlikely to happen here. Go play some games elsewhere, Sean. 

[WilliamPS]

20 minutes ago, mondonewc said:

If we lose one midfielder, lets say Miley comes in.

 

If we lose two midfielders, Willock or Willock's replacement comes in.

 

If we lose all three of our midfield we will go to a back 5.

 

So for Longstaff to have any reasonable chance of mattering we need to lose 4 of our midfielders, and even then Hall could play there, but we shouldn't sell him when it's pure profit in this PSR world we live in?

 

If we have four midfielders out good luck us beating anyone in Champions Leavue anyway, really don't think it's much of a factor when it comes to selling him or not. 

 

 

 

Need 5 midfielders for every single game, a) to influence games with substitutions b) otherwise the starting 3 end up shattered by the end of the season. This season really showed how much the team needs more quality coming off the bench at a level above both Willock and Longstaff.

 

If he wants to go to play elsewhere then I’d thank him and say fair enough. If he stays I think he will contribute next season as a backup in domestic cups and certain league games. I don’t feel the match day fans are as hard on him as the very online fans. I hope he never reads this forum!