Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe insists he is not planning to say goodbye to Miguel Almiron yet.

Despite pushing Almiron to the fans to milk the applause at St Mary's, Howe said it was not a farewell gesture and that the Paraguay international is not on the brink of going. Newcastle, who have Harvey Barnes out for a month, can rest assured that they can still sell Almiron in April when the MLS trading window closes.

It means that Howe has been open minded about Almiron's future. When asked if there was anything to be read into Almiron's "goodbye", the head coach played down talk of an imminent exit.

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Howe, speaking after the 3-1 win over Southampton, said: "Not really [was it goodbye?], it wasn’t planned. It was just the crowd were very much embracing him and giving him a lot of love.

"Miggy's not that kind of character that's got a huge ego that absorbs all the attention, but I just felt it was imperative that we got him to the front and everyone acknowledged he's been unbelievable for us. His attitude, his commitment, the way he's played.

"I'm not saying it's a goodbye, we don't know what's going to happen, but I just thought it was a great moment for him."

Newcastle had actually gone 1-0 down to the Saints after 10 minutes but managed to respond. On that, Howe said: "It would have been a moment that we needed to respond and dig deep and we did. I thought we played really well in that first half. I thought we were excellent and, yes, a great response to conceding.

"I thought we looked creative today. I thought we had a good feel about us, maybe not so much in the last half an hour, but certainly in the first 60 minutes. Scored some good goals, could have scored more."