Eddie Howe wants “battle ready” signings - rather than play fantasy football with Saudi Arabian cash.
The Newcastle chief has landed Chris Wood for £25m and Kieran Trippier for £12m so far this window, and admits that “uncomfortable” prices have to be paid in January.
Wood and Tripper, both over 30, are not the sort of profile of star that football world anticipated Newcastle would be hunting for when the Saudi multi-billion Public Investment Fund took over in October.
Howe says this is the most “intense, complex” transfer window he has experienced as he looks for more new faces to dig the Geordies out of relegation trouble, with a huge game against Watford on Saturday.
But Howe is building a club stage by stage rather than chasing the likes of Kylian Mbappe and galacticos as was, perhaps jokingly, debated by fans.
Howe said: “We can’t hide from the pressure on us.
“When the takeover happened there was a lot of excitement and understandably so. But the immediate needs of the team in our current situation are very different to that initial expectation.
“It is my job to cut out a lot of the noise and see what the team needs.
“The two deals we have done have been great business. They make the squad better and have the right characteristics in terms of playing and attitude.
“And they are ready to play, that is a crucial thing for us in our current position.
“There is nothing wrong with signing younger players for the future - I have done that historically in most of my career - but there is a time and a place for those types of signings. With the current needs of my squad, the two guys we’ve signed were the right ones.’
“The cost of those players is uncomfortable, I’m sure for everybody. That’s not talking about the individual cases, it’s just the price of footballers in general.”
Howe admits that Newcastle’s position in the bottom three does not help when negotiating. He added: “The players have to want to join your battle in the fight to stay in the league and when they are at the top of their profession, that is not an easy sell.
“Newcastle does have a huge pull in many different ways but I believe that our league position is not one of them so it is a very delicate mix, So for me, the most important thing is to bring in the right characters.”
Wood will make his debut up front against Watford with Howe saying of their relegation threat: “We need wins. We can’t survive on draws, that won’t be enough for us.
“Short term we are looking at winning, building momentum and then later in the season look at (points targets) and for now get the process right and win a match.
“Chris Wood is a bit different. I have never been shy saying I admire tall physical strikers who give you a platform to play. Last week we put 30 crosses into the box. We were crying out for someone to put it in. He is hugely motivated to play for Newcastle. He has experience of being in a dogfight.”
Newcastle continue talks with Lille over Sven Botman and Seville over signing Diego Carlos, but Howe says nothing is imminent.
Howe wants to keep Sean Longstaff and hand him a new deal before his current one expires in June, amid interest from Everton.
