Mike Ashley warned Manchester United Sean Longstaff is not for sale at any price as he looks to keep the young midfielder at Newcastle.
The Magpies owner recently appointed former Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce to replace Rafa Benitez – who is now managing Chinese Super League outfit Dalian Yifang – and has backed him in the transfer market by landing £40million Brazilian Joelinton.
The 22-year-old forward is viewed as a direct replacement for Ayoze Perez – who joined Premier League rivals Leicester City in a £30m deal – but Ashley is determined to keep hold of other key members of Bruce’s Newcastle squad.
That includes 21-year-old Longstaff, who impressed in nine Premier League outings last year and is being tracked by United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
But Ashley issued a hands off warning to the Red Devils, insisting the young midfielder will stay on Tyneside.
‘The message we want to put out is that he is not for sale,’ Ashley told the Daily Mail. ‘If you’ve got one like Sean – keep him.’
Ashley’s stance echoed his manager’s views on the situation.
‘We don’t want to sell our best young players, that’s for sure,’ Bruce said. ‘So that won’t happen. I’m very confident (he won’t go).’
Ashley also revealed his frustration at losing Perez – one of the stand-out performers under Benitez last season.
‘We didn’t want to sell Perez, but had no option once Leicester reached that figure,’ he added.
‘These clauses are the highest you think the player will accept, so he can’t batter your door down and demand to be sold for £10m.
‘I don’t care what people say, it’s very difficult to keep a player when they want to go. The age of slavery is dead. But we’ve learned our lesson on release clauses from here.’
