The January transfer window has now been open for almost two weeks, but Newcastle United still don’t look any closer to making a new singing.
The club has not made a permanent signing in January since 2016, and Rafa Benitez continues to be frustrated by a lack of transfer funding.
Newcastle are well and truly in a relegation battle this season, with so few points splitting the bottom seven sides in the Premier League.
It was thought the Toon would almost certainly have to spend big this winter to survive.
But instead it is looking likely that Benitez will have to fight on with the squad at his disposal.
However there has been good news so far this January transfer window.
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Despite the frustration of some fans at the Toon’s lack of activity, most of the team’s around them are also yet to dip into their pockets.
Lack of spending elsewhere
Thankfully, Newcastle are not alone in their transfer struggles.
Many of the sides around them have also faced setbacks this season.
Plenty of the sides at the bottom of the table simply don’t have the funds to be able to vastly improve their side.
Benitez will be hoping that very few will actually gain an advantage in January.
The only team in the bottom seven to have made any successful acquisitions is Huddersfield.
The Terriers currently sit rock bottom of the league but have signed Spurs youngster Jadon Brown and Crystal Palace’s Jason Puncheon on loan.
If Newcastle aren’t going to have a successful window themselves, current transfer activity across the bottom of the table needs to stay relatively the same.
The not-so-big spenders Newcastle must be better than
Burnley
The manager said: “It’s very difficult, the market has been incredibly difficult anyway, and then you add the January side of things.
“We have to be waiting to get our business done, rather than be proactive, because it’s so difficult to be proactive.
“There are things we’ve got our ears to the ground on, but there’s no guarantees.”
There’s no doubt the manager would like to bring new players in. But whether the club can actually afford to is a different story.
Cardiff
Cardiff have hit numerous setbacks in their attempts to make signings this month.
Neil Warnock spoke to BBC Sport this week, and said: “You get your hopes built up.
“People say ‘yes that’s a done deal’ and all of a sudden the next day it’s not a done deal.
“You have to learn to live with that really. That is why you have to say, ‘right we don’t get any players in, we have to get points with what we have got and continue with the miracle.'”
The Welsh side have seen moves for striker Emiliano Sala and defender Nathaniel Clyne fail to materialise this month.
It’s a tough league for newly promoted sides in every aspect, but Benitez will be hoping that Warnock’s poor luck in the window continues.
