Miguel Almiron staying at Newcastle after rejecting the chance to move to Saudi Arabia

The question surrounding the future of Miguel Almiron has been answered. At least for now.

Reports surfaced last week that Miguel Almiron was on his way to Saudi Arabia after Al-Shabab had a verbal agreement with Newcastle United to buy the Paraguayan winger.

Fuel was only added to that fire on Saturday when Eddie Howe named his squad to face Fulham and Miggy's name was nowhere to be seen with Howe claiming that Almiron had fallen ill.

We're keeping Almiron. For now!

A video doing the rounds on social media of Miggy being dropped off at the RVI backed up that claim, but equally added to the idea that he could be leaving with some fans speculating he could have been undergoing a medical there. The reality is, however, that Newcastle United wouldn't use the RVI for private medicals.

Today, Craig Hope as confirmed that Almiron is back in the squad to face Aston Villa tonight and given that the Saudi transfer window closes tonight, it's a very good indication that Almiron will be staying put for the meantime.

All bets are off in the summer when it comes to who will stay and who will go, but for now it looks as if Newcastle are set to go at the latter half of the season with the same personnel as the first half.

Miggy can't afford to be complacent

Hopefully, this time we'll have a lot fewer injuries and Eddie Howe will be able to make changes as he sees fit as really, that has been our biggest problem this season. It's not that we have a poor squad, it's just that a large portion of our squad has been unavailable for the majority of games.

With Jacob Murphy back and Harvey Barnes on the horizon, Almiron will have no room for complacency and that could force him to up his game. Things will turn around.

If last season was a huge over-achievement, we should have been braced for a drop-off this season. And given all the bad luck we've had, I'd say we're still holding our own.