Newcastle star linked with move away this summer has been told he is part of future plans

Eddie Howe's loyalty knows no bounds as the Newcastle United boss looks determined to hold on to another ageing player.

Kieran Trippier and Callum Wilson were both tipped to leave St James' Park this summer as part of a squad refresh but Wilson has managed to get himself injured again, for a change, and is now highly unlikely to move on.

Meanwhile, Kieran Trippier has been snapped heading to the Middle East for a few days break in the sun after representing England at Euro 2024, but the rumours around a move to Saudi Arabia naturally got tongues wagging when he was spotted at Newcastle Airport.

However, Martin Hardy, writing for The Times has claimed that Eddie Howe has spoken to Trippier this week regarding the speculation.

Trippier is dividing fans on whether he should stay or go

The Trippier situation is one that is dividing fans. There are those who feel Trippier still has a lot to offer and that his form and leadership for the club since he arrived are too invaluable to lose.

Meanwhile, others believe his time is up as the England fullback is now 33 and isn't the player he used to be.

Rather unsurprisingly, Howe's preference is to keep hold of Trippier having told the player as much this week before he jetted out to the Middle East.

Howe does need to drop the sentimentality

It's probably not a surprise to any Newcastle fan that Howe would be reluctant to let Trippier go given his track record of hanging on to players he likes regardless of whether it makes sense - Wilson being the prime example and Sean Longstaff also worth a mention too.

If we are to be regular competitors at the top of the Premier League, there will come a time when moving players on is an absolute necessity, and that's the one part of Howe's management that we still need convincing of - is he too sentimental? Look how long he held on to Matt Ritchie and Paul Dummet - and they nearly got contract extensions if we'd got into Europe.

We're not saying that we 100% believe Trippier should be sold this summer, we've said plenty of times that he has a lot of attributes that will be very hard to replace, but you can't deny that there's a trend forming of Howe being reluctant to let players go.