Liam Kennedy felt that Newcastle United made the wrong decision in not allowing Matty Longstaff to leave the club during the January transfer window.
A report in the closing days of the window from The Chronicle claimed that Steve Bruce’s men had turned down a late move from Championship side Watford for Matty, rated £4.5m on Transfermarkt, as well as his brother Sean. However, the club were unwilling to make the move happen because they needed a series of transfers to fall in place before letting him go.
The club would eventually bring in Joe Willock on loan from Arsenal having failed to secure Leicester City’s Hamza Choudhury, and that has left them with arguably too many options when it comes to the middle of the park.
And speaking on the latest edition of NUFC Matters, Kennedy claims that whilst Watford were not the ideal club for him to go to, he would have benefitted from heading out to play somewhere for six months:
He said: “I do think Matty Longstaff would have benefitted from going away and playing games. Do I think Watford was the right club for him? I’m not 100% certain on that one. They haven’t got a great record with loan players. Quite a transient club, [they] change managers, change players too often. I’m not certain that will be the best move for him.
“But it is a shame he couldn’t have got out on loan somewhere, because even though he’s probably one of the better centre midfielders we’ve got, I just don’t see Steve Bruce using him.”
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TIF Thoughts on Liam Kennedy’s comments about Matty Longstaff…
Kennedy is right when he talks about Longstaff’s situation. Given his lack of appearances this season and the addition of Willock – who you’d imagine will be getting some game time as well – he’s only going to be bumped further down the pecking order on Tyneside.
So in terms of his long-term future and development at the club, this does come across as a little bit short-sighted from the club as he’s now essentially left to rot either on the bench or in the U23s when he should really be playing first-team football.