Eddie Howe is absolutely desperate for 27-year-old Newcastle player to stay at the club next season

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Eddie Howe is absolutely desperate to keep one of his key Newcastle United players whose future is currently up in the air.

Although they have had a number of players return from injury lately, they’re still missing Joelinton in the midfield who has been a key figure in that team in the last couple of years.

Speaking in his press conference today, Howe claimed that getting Joelinton to sign a new contract is an ‘absolute priority’ with his current deal set to expire in less than 18 months time.

Howe is desperate for Joelinton to stay at Newcastle

In Newcastle’s latest run of games something has been so glaringly obvious and that is that their midfield is seriously lacking in physicality and energy and its costing them games.

Bruno Guimaraes has been his usual top class self, but his game isn’t necessarily built around being a quick and physical player, but rather more focused on his technical ability.

Neither Sean Longstaff or Lewis Miley are particularly physical either, so a lot of the time the midfield has been caught out on the break and they don’t have the pace to track back for the defence which is being exposed time and time again.

What Joelinton brings to the team in terms of his physicality, his ability to close down players as well as drive the team forwards into a more advanced position is invaluable to Howe who wants to keep him at Newcastle for the long term.

When asked about Joelinton’s new deal, Howe said: “That’s always been in my mind as an absolute priority, to try to get him to stay at the club long-term. I see that as hugely important.”

Joelinton could have played his last game for Newcastle

While they are working very hard to get the Brazilian to sign a new deal, there is a world where Joelinton looks to capitalise on his good form and find himself a move elsewhere for a greater amount of money.

For Newcastle that would of course be a huge blow, but the fee they would receive for the midfielder would solve a lot of their financial fair play issues as it looks like they’re going to have to make a big sale at some point.

It’s also not as if Newcastle have a midfield problem with Joe Willock now returning, Elliot Anderson soon to come back into the fold and then Sandro Tonali coming back from his ban in the summer.

But it is clear that Howe values what Joelinton brings to Newcastle very highly so right now everyone is working towards securing his future in the North East.