Newcastle have still made just one permanent signing in this summer's transfer window
Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe
Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe(Image: Newcastle United via Getty Images)
Newcastle have let it be known via an overused grapevine that they want to bring in four players - a central defender, midfielder with Sean Longstaff gone and Joe Willock injured, plus two strikers.
However as we enter the last knockings of a transfer window which has been open so long the cold draught could cause icicles are you convinced four more will be squeezed through? So far over weeks and months United have managed to buy one player, Anthony Elanga, and sign one on loan Aaron Ramsdale. Not exactly a Niagara Falls cascade is it?
They have tried for every half-decent striker available outside of the NHS picket lines and have come up short every time. It has been viewed as humiliating, embarrassing, and held us up to ridicule by everyone the length and breadth of the country.
Yes, surely United will get somebody in before the gates clang shut - maybe even two - but four? And the target was far from impossible when Eddie Howe first requested a quartet of signings immediately after last season ended on a massive high.
There is not an excuse available that will placate fans and probably not Eddie deep down, though publicly he will retain a dignified stance doing the politically right thing, as is his strength.
It's become a matter of throwing the names in the air like confetti in a high wind and see where they fall. Malick Thiaw and Yoane Wissa possibly, maybe John McGinn and any striker you like from Ollie Watkins to Nicolas Jackson with a few more foreign names put up for consideration.
At a time when strong guidance is required United's executive floor remains empty. CEO Darren Eales, diagnosed with blood cancer, is on medical leave while sporting director Paul Mitchell has departed. Neither has been replaced and United have drifted through a summer of growing discontent. Are we fed up? You betya!
Nothing stirs the pot of unrest more than failure and United's fan base, looking for answers, have been accusing Newcastle's leadership of inadvertently helping the opposition.
PIF are the majority owners of Newcastle while also having four Saudi Pro League clubs in their stable: Al-Ahli, Al-Ittihad, Al-Hilal, and Al-Nassr and this is where the plot thickens.
Chelsea have sold players for £100m to Saudi Pro League clubs moving on their considerable wages at the same time and then signed Joao Pedro for £60m beating Newcastle to the winning line. Then there is a matter of the Club World Cup which PIF helped to fund. By winning it Chelsea made a reported £85m. Again PIF has boosted them in passing.
Liverpool, meanwhile, have sold stars to PIF-owned clubs in Saudi, including Darwin Nunez, which could help to finance Alexander Isak's arrival.
We need all the help we can get to reverse a worrying trend so please can football's shakers and dealers - the agents, scouts and the like - put out there a few telephone numbers for the consumption of all the most wanted players left on the transfer market.
Can they forward the personal cell phones of Bruno and Kieran Trippier, Sandro Tonali and Joelinton, Tino Livramento, Lewis Hall, and Sven Botman. Aye even newcomer Anthony Elanga and old stager Callum Wilson.
Because the word seems to have got round in football that the North East is not the place to live whereas London, Manchester or Liverpool is Utopia. It seems we are in the middle of the Saraha, on the moon, deep in Siberia, or an island marooned in the centre of the A1.
The footballers I've mentioned would be great ambassadors for us. They could reassure those on United's radar what we have going for us up here. They landed and loved it.
We are no longer a landscape of pit heaps, coal mines, and shipyards. No longer are we all Andy Capps with a whippet on a long piece of string.
Do footballers know of the marvellous restaurants in Newcastle? Of its reputation as the country's party capital? Of the stunning beach at Bamburgh, the best stretch of golden sand beneath an imposing castle in the world? Of all the other beautiful countryside attractions?
United simply cannot go on losing targets after making bid after bid after bid. We made four for Marc Guehi up to £70m and failed, three for Hugo Ekitike over two periods and failed, three for James Trafford and failed, and now two for Benjamin Sesko reaching a record £78m and failed.
As a consequence Newcastle and Isak are facing a real problem. Isak obviously with his transfer to Liverpool temporarily marooned on the rocks of expectancy having burned his credit with everyone on Tyneside including the fans but United are in trouble too because while it is easy to force him to stay with a contract covering the next three years getting him to play with unrestricted enthusiasm and joy is quite another matter.
A player hasn't to down tools. He can turn out every game but be a shadow of his enthusiastic best and that is a problem for his club. It can be blamed on niggling injuries, loss of form, loss of confidence, hostile environment. Anything you wish but the bottom line remains the same.
What is that well known saying . . . you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink?
Compare Isak's rough-house tactics to force a transfer with the dignified exit of a great and loyal servant Martin Dubravka on his way to Burnley after a seven-year stint in our colours.
Martin stayed in an emergency last season sacrificing a huge Saudi pension to help us qualify for Europe and now departs without fuss but with the total gratitude of every Geordie on the planet. Thank you Martin and thank you for going in the right way. Your legacy is assured.
Our top goaslcorer cannot have it all ways. As Howe has said you have to earn the right to be part of the Newcastle family which is why the gaffer banned him from a lunchtime training-ground barbecue this week. The late Queen put it another way to her sulking wantaway grandson Harry: "You are either in or you're out!"
Isak's mind is obviously scrambled and if he has to stay and it takes weeks, months even, to clear away the mist that can do untold damage to United's PL points return and Champions League campaign.
Then there is a matter of his fitness as we approach football's official relaunch. Whoever he is playing for the question remains: how sharp is he having missed a barrowload of pre-season matches and undergone a very restricted day to day training routine?
Questions, questions, nothing but questions.