Newcastle taught painful lessons after January transfer window, with little margin for error left

The “richest club in the world™” had a pretty poor transfer window. Newcastle United’s owners have been on a steep learning curve since the takeover was confirmed in October. January has offered more painful lessons.

The Amanda Staveley-led, Saudi Arabian-backed regime has spent in the region of £90m in an effort to avoid relegation. The five new faces definitely upgrade the team but also throw up a number of questions. Have Newcastle done enough? The next four months will tell.

The month opened with the arrival of Kieran Trippier from Atletico Madrid. He is a significant improvement at right-back. The next player through the door at St James’ Park was Chris Wood. The New Zealander left fellow basement dwellers Burnley and was hailed as a coup because the transaction denies their rivals a striker.

Wood has scored three goals so far this season. He is an admirable and physical front man but there were few tears as he departed Turf Moor – especially when they replaced him with Wout Weghorst. The Dutchman netted six times for Wolfsburg during this campaign and Burnley believe they have made a major upgrade.

The other three recruits came in the late rush. Dan Burn joined from Brighton & Hove Albion and Matt Targett will spend the rest of the season on loan from Aston Villa. Eddie Howe has been concerned about the full-backs since taking the job as manager in November. Trippier and Targett should be a good fit on the flanks. Burn is a strong, if limited, centre back.

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The Newcastle defence has been shambolic. Only Norwich City have conceded more in the league. Yet a wholesale revamp of the back line presents a massive challenge for the manager. Howe is not known for his defensive acumen.

The new-look rearguard needs to gel before the team host Everton a week today. It will test the 44-year-old’s coaching abilities. The former Bournemouth boss was far from Newcastle’s first choice to replace Steve Bruce. Even internally there remains some scepticism about whether the inexperienced owners have picked the right man.

The other signing is the one that has excited Geordies most. Bruno Guimaraes is the club’s second most expensive signing – behind his fellow Brazilian Joelinton – and has been impressive at Lyon. There is a lot of expectation on the 24-year-old’s shoulders.

Any foreign signing is a risk in January. It can take a while for newcomers to the Premier League to become used to the pace and physicality of the game. A relegation fight is no place for a settling-in period (the same can be said about Weghorst at Burnley). Guimaraes needs to adjust quickly. The midfielder has more than trebled his wages to about £120,000 per week and Lyon were highly conscious of the English club’s Saudi-backed wealth when negotiating the transfer. No one is going to cut Newcastle a deal in the foreseeable future.

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That was clear in their attempt to bring Jesse Lingard to the northeast on loan. Manchester United wanted an eyewatering £12m survival payment as well as the £2.5m loan fee. The 29-year-old scored nine league goals for West Ham United in the post-January months a year ago. A similar sort of return would have likely ensured that Newcastle would not slip into the Championship. It is not as simple as just paying the price, though.

In the immediate aftermath of the takeover, the word from Tyneside was that there was no intention to spend big in the winter window. The performances of the team soon changed that plan. Yet it is not as easy as spending freely.

The mood across the top flight – and beyond – is antagonistic towards the Saudis and Newcastle. Few believe that the club is not owned by the Gulf state, despite the legally binding assurances accepted by the Premier League that the desert kingdom’s government does not control St James’ Park. The team’s trip for warm-weather training in Jeddah during the winter break last week raised eyebrows. The cynical view is that the Saudis are thumbing their noses at those who opposed their involvement in English football. Many fear that Newcastle will be used as an arm of soft-power foreign policy in a similar manner to the way Manchester City’s owners have used the club to promote Abu Dhabi.

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Hardly anyone cares about sportswashing and human rights in the directors’ boxes of the game’s biggest clubs. Their only concern is the impact it will have on their own selfish needs. The last thing they want is St James’ Park crashing the superclub party. Newcastle’s relegation would be widely celebrated.

When City started their Abu Dhabi-funded journey from Manchester’s poor relations to one of Europe’s superpowers, their tactics were almost unprecedented – even Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea did not up the ante like the Etihad’s Arab owners. The resentment towards City is still strong. No one outside the northeast wants to see Newcastle on the same trajectory.

City had to overpay both in fees and wages in order to get to the position of dominance they now maintain. It will be harder and costlier for Newcastle to replicate that success.

Staveley and co know this. She and her fellow executives have had cool receptions in certain Premier League boardrooms at away games. Wellwishers are in short supply for Newcastle.

As are points. And players capable of keeping the club up. Howe now knows what he has to work with. There was no margin for error in January and even less between now and May.