Man Utd to launch £30m bid for another 21-year-old

Manchester United look set to make at least one more signing before the start of the 2019-20 Premier League season in just over two weeks’ time.

We are strongly linked with Leicester City centre-back Harry Maguire, but it now seems Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is going to add another option in midfield as reports say we are ready to make a £30 million offer for Newcastle United’s Sean Longstaff.

The 21-year-old energetic midfielder broke into Rafa Benitez’s first team last season and despite not even having a full season under his belt he appears to have done enough to impress our boss.

Ole has already signed 21-year-olds Daniel James and Aaron Wan-Bissaka from Swansea City and Crystal Palace respectively and appears to want to reduce the average age in the squad further with the addition of the Newcastle-born midfielder. That’s according to a report in the Mirror.

Longstaff would be seen as a direct replacement for Ander Herrera, who left for Paris Saint-Germain earlier this summer.

The manager appears to want to build his squad around young British players, with Harry Maguire only being 26 years old himself and a regular in the England national team.

However, the Mirror do report that Newcastle are demanding an excessive £50 million for the midfielder, who only has 16 Premier League appearances under his belt and wasn’t far off rejoining League One side Blackpool on loan for the second half of last season before making his top flight debut on Boxing Day.

£50 million would be too much for the youngster, which is perhaps why we’re trying to test Newcastle’s resolve with an offer of £30 million. One would imagine there will be a negotiation period before the start of the new season.

Though we must have some confidence in signing Longstaff as the report goes on to say that executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has stayed in Manchester to focus on transfer business and will miss our pre-season tour of Australia and the Far East. This would be the first pre-season tour Woodward has missed during the last six years.

We shall have to wait and see whether £30 million will be enough to tempt the Magpies into a deal for Sean Longstaff but the young midfielder looks to have a bright future ahead of him and there’s certainly a space in our squad for him.