Sean Longstaff knows that a decade is a long time in football and says he will savour every moment of Wembley this weekend.
At 25, Longstaff is one of the elder statesmen in the Newcastle United dressing room these days but it wasn't that long ago that he was part of an excited bunch of kids assigned to be ball boys for the Europa League at St James' Park. Longstaff was from a group of youngsters that included Cal Roberts and Dan Barlaser but he has emerged as the big star from that group.
Despite scoring a glut of goals in the reserves he was shifted from an attacking midfield role to a more defensive position and then came a lot of talk about whether he'd get a big contract at all. But it was Rafa Benitez who made sure he was tied down and after hauling him back from a loan deal to Portsmouth, Longstaff made his debut in the 2018/19 season.
