EDDIE Howe hopes the reluctant sale of Lloyd Kelly helps to ensure a "brighter future" for Newcastle United in the transfer market - but admitted he can't make any guarantees at this stage as to how the Magpies will be able to approach the summer window.

Kelly joined Juventus on an initial loan that will be made permanent for £20m in the summer, following Miguel Almiron out of the door in the winter window.

From a football perspective, Howe was keen to keep both players at the club but Newcastle's head coach described trading as the "most important short term way" to negotiate the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules.

Howe said the sales helped to "navigate Newcastle out of a problem" and revealed the exit of Kelly was never going to result in a signing being made ahead of Monday night's transfer deadline.

"That did not give us any positive headroom to bring a player in," said Howe on Tuesday morning.

"We knew from the off this month we weren’t in the incoming market. It was about controlling sales that navigated us out of a problem. So that’s where we were the whole month, and it never changed.

"I said right at the start in the build-up to the window it wasn't a case of looking at incomings, it was more a case of trying to manage outgoings and not weaken the squad too much.

"But we also future plan and make sure we control everything in terms of our PSR level. I think we've done that, it's been successful on that side. The squad now is lighter in numbers but high in quality so for us managing injuries will be a big part of what we do now. "There's still no reason why we can't be successful but hopefully the future looks a bit brighter for us now."

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Kelly was a fringe figure in the first half of the season after joining the club on a free transfer in the summer from Bournemouth, but Howe was still keen on keeping hold of the versatile defender.

He said "I don't think it was necessarily my decision to let him leave. We were very reluctant from our side. Lloyd is a player who has just recently signed and we believed in him and his qualities.

"It was frustrating for him that he hadn't played more, in part down to the other players around him. But we are in the world and we have been in this window of trying to manage PSR and trying to make decisions that will benefit us in the long term. This is one of those decisions.

"Lloyd leaves with our best wishes. I'm sure he'll do well in Italy and it's an exciting challenge for him."

Asked what Kelly's sale means for how Newcastle will be able to approach the summer window, Howe said: "I’ve said many times, it’s a difficult thing to give clear, definitive answers, and that’s not me being difficult, as to what the future looks like.

"I think, certainly for the past year, we’ve been managing a situation that we had to make decisions that we necessarily wouldn’t make from a football perspective.

"Hopefully, by being prudent, in the future we won’t be making those decisions and will be just making purely football decisions.

"But for when we get to that point, I can’t give you a definite date and it would be wrong of me to do so.

"Everything we are doing is trying to lead us to that point."

Howe added: "Trading is probably the most important short-term way without a new stadium and all the other things we have discussed many times. Trading takes on huge importance. I'm not going to go on about the history of Newcastle's trading but just in the last few windows, it's not been clear and easy for us to navigate our way through this situation so we're trying our best to comply with the rules."