Newcastle United manager Steve Bruce has addressed the Sean Longstaff to Manchester United transfer speculation that’s dominated headlines for much of the summer.
The 21-year-old has shown himself to be a promising young talent at St James’ Park, despite not managing to quite establish himself as a regular week in, week out just yet.
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Man Utd’s apparent interest in Longstaff has some as something of a surprise, but the Guardian recently claimed a deal looked close for the young midfielder to move to Old Trafford, while Sky Sports have suggested he’d cost as much as £50million.
However, speaking about Longstaff, Newcastle’s new manager Bruce seemed to pour cold water over the rumours, saying he is not aware of the youngster being close to leaving for MUFC.
“He’s a player we want to keep, he’s had a remarkable rise,” Bruce told the Chronicle.
“He is everything you would want in a player, big and athletic and he handles the ball well.
“He is the type of player you want to build your team around, I’ve only seen him for a day, but he has had an unbelievable rise. He very much reminds me of a Michael Carrick.
“I’m not aware that he is going to Manchester United, I’m not aware of that at all.”
United fans may not be that bothered about signing Longstaff in particular this summer, but they’ll surely be hoping their club has something up its sleeve in the coming weeks as more work surely needs to be done to lift this squad after their sixth place finish in 2018/19.