Pep Guardiola now drops fresh verdict on James McAtee’s Manchester City future after Newcastle United rumour

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Newcastle United surely need to strengthen their squad at some point.

While Eddie Howe is doing a brilliant job in papering over the cracks this season, Newcastle will need to reinvest either this month or in the summer.

The Newcastle United manager can only keep performing relative miracles with what he has currently available for so long, after all.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
4	ChelseaChelsea	19	10	5	4	38	23	15	35
5	NewcastleNewcastle	19	9	5	5	32	21	11	32
6	Man CityManchester City	19	9	4	6	32	26	6	31

Still, PSR limitations are what they are, so incomings this month may be fairly unlikely.

At some point, however, there could be some signings. As you can imagine, plenty of names have been linked with moves to the club in recent weeks.

Indeed, one of those is Manchester City midfielder James McAtee.

The 22-year-old was touted as a target by the Daily Mail amid a lack of game time under Pep Guardiola, albeit the City boss has suggested he won’t be allowed to leave this season.

Speaking on Friday, Guardiola went even further in his praise of the City academy graduate.

• READ MORE: All of Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United signings, ranked

Pep Guardiola responds after James McAtee linked with move to Newcastle

Guardiola’s side meet West Ham on Saturday and McAtee may be pushing for a start, having impressed off the bench against Leicester last time out.

“Yes. It [his performance against Leicester] made me believe that he should have more minutes,” he told a pre-match press conference.

“But he is young and there are a lot of games to play. I have big respect for how he behaves in the locker room.”

James McAtee has something Eddie Howe absolutely loves

McAtee is able to operate in a number of different roles. While the bulk of his career appearances have come as an attacking midfielder, he’s also capable of playing centrally or out on the wing.

That kind of versatility would likely stand him in good stead under Howe, He, after all, spoke of much he valued that particular trait in a player when praising Dan Burn last season.

It’s understandable City would want to keep him now given their injury crisis but perhaps the situation will have changed come the summer.

Newcastle could certainly do a lot worse…