NEWCASTLE STICK LOFTY FEE ON STAR AS FARKE SEEKS FIX FOR MAJOR LEEDS WEAKNESS; LEICESTER ALSO KEEN

Newcastle United midfielder Sean Longstaff will reportedly be allowed to leave amid links with Leeds United and Leicester City this summer  – but the two Championship promotion hopefuls will need to pay a premium price.

When Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund took over Newcastle in October 2021, the expectation was that they would be a new force in English football.

While they have spent more than £400m on players since then, and qualified for the Champions League for 2023/24, the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules have shown more teeth in recent months – meaning top-flight teams cannot afford to lose more than £105m over three years.

Everton and Nottingham Forest have been hit with points deductions for breaching financial fair play rules and Newcastle CEO Darren Eales admitted in January the Magpies – who announced a loss of £73.4m for the 2022/23 financial year – could be forced to sell some of their biggest names to stay in line with the rules.

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Eales explained: “It’s just the nature of the beast. If you trade players on, it creates more headroom. You have to keep growing that headroom, increasing commercial revenue and player trading.

“It’s difficult to hypothesise, but if we’re offered £1 billion for one of those players, then no one could argue against that making sense.

“Any decision we make will always be against the backdrop of the medium to long-term benefit for the club. It’s difficult to say specifically on certain players, but I can say that, if we’re going to get to where we want to get to, at times it is necessary to trade your players.”

Leeds battle Leicester in race for Newcastle star

One way to help a club balance their books is by selling an academy player as that goes down as ‘pure profit’. In this instance, Newcastle will take in every penny of Longstaff’s fee  – reportedly set at £20m – should he be sold.

And with the midfielder out of contract in 2025, this summer may be the time to cash in on the 26-year-old. As we edge closer to the opening of the transfer window in mid June, Premier League promotion hopefuls Leeds and Leicester have been credited with interest in Longstaff, according to The Shields Gazette.

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For Leeds, while they have lots of attacking talent in Crysencio Summerville, Dan James, Wilfried Gnonto, Joel Piroe, and more, none of their goals this season have come from midfield, though Ethan Ampadu – who has since reverted to defence – does have two to his name.

If they do get promoted, that is one area of the pitch they will need to address and while Longstaff is far from prolific, he has scored six goals and bagged two assists in 40 appearances in all competitions for Newcastle this season.

However, if Daniel Farke’s men fail to make it out of the Championship at the first attempt, there is next to no chance they will be able to stump up the funds to recruit Longstaff.

2024-04-23T15:58:10Z dg43tfdfdgfd