'He will stay here for many years to come': Howe confirms young star has a future at St James'

Despite only playing a handful of games this season, Eddie How has reiterated that Lewis Hall is one for the future at Newcastle United.

When asked today at his pre-Chelsea press conference about Lewis Hall, the head coach was quick to put to bed any story that the young left-back wasn't staying at St James' Park.

Howe did admit that he expects the deal to be completed, but confirmed the trigger on Hall'scontract has yet to be activated. We still don't know exactly what that trigger is, although several rumours in January suggested it might be based on where Newcastle finish in the league.

If we had to guess, it's likely a relegation clause. This would guarantee Chelsea receives the transfer fee, but also gives Newcastle until the last handful of games to trigger it, as it would only activate when relegation was a mathematical impossibility.

Discussing Hall's loan deal, Howe was quick to set the record straight

"I believe in him. He was brought here for the long term. There’s no magic wand—sometimes you just need patience, which I know is a rare commodity. I can confirm that Lewis Hall’s permanent move is close to being triggered."

Hall has probably not had the game time most fans would expect given how multiple teams have targeted Burn as a weak link at left-back. We could very well be seeing the head coach waiting for Hall to be 'Howe-fit', though, similar to what we saw with Anthony Gordon.

Some people's take on the Hall situation is a little bit different

If you want a more speculative answer, it could be that the club want Hall to be considered a 'youth signing', which has a different book value for FFP/PSR. The suggestion floated on social media is that Hall would need to play fewer than 32% of matches in the Premier League to qualify as such a signing.

That would mean Hall could only play in 12 matches, meaning he could only feature four more times for Newcastle this season. Of course, this assumes that only league matches count. Hall has featured eight times in the league, playing just 104 minutes.

The 19-year-old last featured in the Premier League for Newcastle in the 2-3 home loss to Manchester City, a game which ended a run of six games in which he featured. Hall has been an unused sub in our last six games.