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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.

- JOHNGIBSON

However, as we enter the last knockings of a transfer window that 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 in 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.