Jonas Gutierrez is delighted he chose to stay with Newcastle United this season.

The Toon winger was concerned a spell in England's second tier would derail his World Cup dream but his national team manager told him not to leave St James' Park.

Gutierrez said: "When the time came to decide whether or not I was going to stay I made my decision after speaking with Diego. He told me that everything would depend on how I was playing and not where I was playing and that added to the commitment the club showed to me made my mind up to stay. Now I'm just so happy about promotion but we have to keep the celebrations on hold for the end of the season if we can finish as Champions." Newcastle moved a step closer to winning the league with Monday's 2-1 win over Sheffield United and the former Real Mallorca winger has now set his sights on rounding the season off in style.

He added: "I have achieved my first objective which was to help get Newcastle up. I set out at the start of the season to go step-by-step and not get ahead of myself but now I can start thinking about winning the Championship with my club and then preparing myself for South Africa."