Isaac Hayden reveals Newcastle United dressing room view on Salomon Rondon’s future

Rondon netted a superb free-kick in Saturday’s 2-2 draw against Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium.

The strike took on-loan Rondon’s Premier League goal tally for the season to nine.

And Hayden says the club’s players and staff want Rondon to stay beyond the end of the season.

“I think if you ask every fan and everyone at the football club, they’d want him to stay,” said the midfielder.

“Sometimes in football things are taken out of your control, and it’s not up to the individual. It’s up to the clubs to negotiate a fee.

“But if you ask players, staff, everyone around the football club, they’d say yes (they want him to stay).

“It’s not up to everyone, it’s up to two clubs.”

Asked about Rondon’s importance to the team, Hayden added: “He’s a vitally important player for us. You can see his goals and assists ratio this season – they’ve been crucial.

“The whole team has been a really good platform, especially over the past two or three months.

“The players at the back and the goalkeeper start the platform off, and then obviously the front players do what they do best which is create and score goals.

“He’s important, just as important as everyone else.”

Rondon gave United the lead before the break with a 25-yard free-kick.

The set-piece had been won by Miguel Almiron, who had run half the length of the pitch before being brought down.

Josh King netted twice in the second half – the first of his goals came from a disputed penalty – but Matt Ritchie claimed a point for Newcastle with a stunning 94th-minute equaliser against his old club.

Hayden, however, felt that United should have left with more than a point.

“I thought it was a really good game, a really enjoyable game to play in,” said the 23-year-old. “I don’t know about watching it!

“I thought the first half was a bit like a basketball game, a bit end-to-end, a little bit immature from both teams, really.

“It was quite frantic and end-to-end.

“I thought the point was the least we deserved. We’ve come here, it’s tough conditions, a tough stadium to come to. I think we played some good football, some good stuff.

“We know that they’ve got quality all around the pitch, a good manager, a good squad. So we knew that they’d be tough opposition, but I thought we gave them a very good game.”

Newcastle’s comeback followed their two late goals against Everton at St James’s Park a week earlier.

And Hayden believes that United, under Benitez, are more resilient than ever, as shown by their recent fightbacks.

“I think the last few months have helped,” said Hayden.

“We’ve had a few games where we’ve been behind and come back.

“You can see that even when we were 2-1 down, everyone still believed that we could get an equaliser, and we were pushing forward to get that.

“Last season, I don’t know if we’d have been able to do that. Last season we came here and were 2-0 up and drew 2-2, so it was a slightly different outcome.

“We’re not overly happy with a point, but we’ll take it. It’s another step in the right direction.”

On Ritchie’s left-footed volley, Hayden added: “It was a fantastic strike, a really, really good finish and a great ball by Yeds (DeAndre Yedlin).

“It was a nice way to finish off for him on what was a special day coming back to his old club.”

Newcastle are back in action on April 1, when they take on Arsenal, Hayden’s former club, at the Emirates Stadium.

“Obviously, the point is the main thing, but also the performance ... we can take a lot of encouragement from it,” said Hayden.

“I thought we played quite well. There are definitely a lot of positives to take into the game against Arsenal.”