Manchester United could end up paying a huge £70million to sign Sean Longstaff next summer after Ed Woodward dithered over the deal.
That's according to the Mail Online , who claim that Red Devils were confident of signing the Newcastle United youngster for around £20million this summer, only for the club to stutter over the deal in negotiations led by executive vice-chairman Woodward.
It is now said that United are 'likely' to have to pay up to £50million more for Longstaff than they initially planned to, with the 21-year-old primed for a real breakout season in the Premier League following fleeting appearances for the Magpies in the last campaign.
Longstaff played 11 times for Newcastle last season, following on from loan spells with Kilmarnock in Scotland and League One side Blackpool.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has long identified Longstaff as a key addition for his United midfield, which lacked dynamism and youth in recent seasons.
But Woodward's skills as a businessman and generator of commercial revenue have never quite been able to tally with success in the transfer market, and he has always found the acquisition of players and the selling of others to be a much more complicated task.
This has led to fierce criticism from the United fans, with a banner flown from a plane calling for his removal last season.
Woodward's tactic with Longstaff was to delay and delay and hope that Newcastle would be forced into selling amid the troubled ownership of Mike Ashley, who oversaw the departure of Rafael Benitez and appointment of Steve Bruce as manager this summer.
But that approach - which mirrored United's ultimately successful transfer pursuit of Harry Maguire for a fee Leicester were always asking for - failed to pay off, and if United still want Longstaff next summer then it will hit them in the pocket.
