AC Milan are stepping up their interest in Newcastle defender ahead of January window

The last two transfer windows were filled with speculation around the exit of one of Newcastle United's most important players and it seems that the trend is set to continue into a third consecutive window.

Kieran Trippier has fallen behind Tino Livramento in the pecking order at Newcastle, at least that's what we were all led to believe. In truth Eddie Howe seems to be dividing the responsibility equally between the two.

Now 34 years old, Trippier is unlikely to be able to play an entire season at Eddie Howe's level of intensity so sharing the role with Tino Livramento makes sense.

However, Trippier still believes he can do a job for the first-team and as such has been toying with the idea of a St James' Park exit.

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AC Milan see Kieran Trippier as the answer to their own issues

In January a move to Bayern Munich was mooted and then in the summer it seemed as though a move to the Saudi Pro League was on the cards. Given Trippier's problems at home, it was very heavily speculated that he wanted a move away to start fresh, but Trippier remains at Newcastle. For now.

AC Milan were a side said to be interested in Trippier in the summer and now Corriere dello Sport (via Milan News) has claimed that Milan are still very keen on Trippier after Paulo Fonseca has identified gaps of quality in his current squad.

Milan see Trippier as the ideal signing to bolster their options for both right and left-back given his versatility. With Davide Calabria’s contract is expiring and Alessandro Florenzi unable to stay injury free, there's a need for a new right-back, while an established deputy to Theo Hernandez has been on Milan's list for a while now.

Trippier still has a role to play at Newcastle

Trippier has shown this season that there's life in the old dog yet and while we have previously said it's time to cash in and let him go, we're swinging back around to keeping him on at the club.

We've always praised his influence on the club and often said that we'd love him to stay on at Newcastle as a coach, but given his age and injury record, we've questioned his place in the squad.

He's far from the player who came in and helped transform Newcastle along with Eddie Howe, but he still definitely has a role to play. Unless Trippier still wants that move away and has told Eddie Howe as much, we don't believe Howe will be too keen to let him to in January.