Eddie Howe has outlined of Newcastle Determined to hold on to Sandro Tonali and claimed the lack of arrivals in January was due to PSR restrictions.

Howe spent around £220million on the likes of Nick Waltemed, Yoan Wisa, Jacob Ramsey and Anthony Elanga in the summer, meaning there was little wiggle room for further additions before the window closed yesterday.

Newcastle are short on numbers in defense due to a raft of injuries and asked if there was a risk of not adding to the squad, Howe said: “Yes, but – I have to choose my words carefully here – we were really left with no other option. Every decision we made had a long-term impact. There was no guarantee that signing anyone would help us in the short term with the funds we had available.

“It is what it is, and we’ve been used to working in this situation for a while now. We’ve only been active in one transfer window in the last four or five so I think we’re under financial restrictions, we’ve got to be really smart and we’ve decided to wait until the summer.”

Newcastle have no intention of selling Tonali to Arsenal

There were suggestions earlier yesterday that Arsenal were keen on Tonali, however a deal of that magnitude never materialized due to the limited time available.

Newcastle insisted they had no contact with the Gunners and Howe said the Italy international was enjoying life on Tyneside.

He added: “There was certainly no intention on our part to lose Sandro. I think he’s an integral player to what we’re doing. I think he’s very happy here. He loves playing for Newcastle and loves representing the city.”

When asked if it was Arsenal’s first move to try to unsettle the player ahead of a new bid in the summer, Howe said: “I don’t think so but a lot of things happen without my knowledge. As far as I know we’ve got a player who is an excellent footballer and an excellent person. He’s very happy here, he has a good relationship with me, his teammates and his teammates.

“He seems really happy within himself, so that would surprise me, but he and our best players are always attracting the attention of other clubs, that’s just the reality of football.

“We want to keep the group together, we want to be progressive and, of course, Sandro plays a part in that, trying to hit his best level and play as much as he can to help the team.

“So everything is surrounded, I don’t see any problems but I’m not in control of everything.”

Newcastle look to overturn the deficit at Manchester City

newcastle, who slipped to the bottom of the Premier League table with a 4-1 defeat at Liverpool on SaturdayManchester City go to Manchester City tomorrow night, looking to overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit in the semi-finals of the EFL Cup.

It may seem a tall order for the current trophy holders but Howe insists they will travel to the Etihad with optimism.

“We have to be very confident,” he said. “The second goal in the first game was obviously a big disappointment for us, coming so late, but we still believe and we have to believe.

“I believe we have players who can go into any stadium in the world and perform and score goals. I think the group has a collective spirit.

“It will be an almighty challenge – there is no greater challenge away from Manchester City. I think we say every time we play them but we believe in ourselves and are going to give it a good go.”

The visitors will again be without captain Bruno Guimaraes while Lewis Milley is also unlikely to feature, although there was better news about defender Sven Boatman.

Howe said: “Bruno is doing well. I don’t think he’ll make the game but there’s a chance at the weekend. Sven Boatman is fine. Lewis I’m not sure will make the game either.