UK Edition
This is the time of year for grandiose statements about the importance of new signings, a month when all sense of perspective can be lost in the frenzy of speculation and rumours that fuel the January transfer window. But it is no exaggeration to say this is the most important window in Newcastle United’s recent history.
Newcastle have eight days to not only save their season – hyperbole, yet in this instance not misplaced – but also hold on to the one man who has kept this divisive club united over the last 18 months: manager Rafa Benitez.
Without new signings, Newcastle might still stay up in May, they might scramble enough points to avoid an immediate return to the Championship, but it will be tight and tense, nervous and risky.
What Newcastle’s hierarchy will not do if they fail to at least sign the top-class striker Benitez has been promised is persuade the Spaniard to remain on Tyneside long-term.
Benitez has been told there is a new contract for him if he wants it, but why would he want to sign if the club fail to back him in the transfer market?
Why would he remain with employers who have persistently let him down, who have said one thing and done another when it comes to recruitment?
Why would he want to be at a club that does not listen to him when it comes to the football side of the business he is supposed to be in control of?
Benitez has been calling for the squad to be strengthened for months – he warned they were short in the summer – and he has belatedly been told this is going to happen, that owner Mike Ashley has listened and agrees with him.
Except, we are now approaching the end of the month and nothing has happened yet. Chelsea winger Kenedy will sign on loan this week, but that is merely filling a hole in the squad left from the summer.
Newcastle need more than that. That is what Benitez has argued tirelessly behind the scenes and it is what supporters know, having seen a hardworking, spirited and well-organised group of players struggle to pull clear of the drop zone.
Having failed to find a buyer for the club for a third time in less than 11 years, Ashley has apparently given the green light – in itself, a slightly strange metaphor given there are no cars involved – to make at least three signings before deadline day.
Except, nobody believes him. Or rather, nobody believes it is going to happen. This sort of thing has been said countless times before under Ashley. If not by him, then by those he employs. Newcastle’s January window history is littered with near-misses, wild goose chases and talk of “unable to get the players we wanted over the line.”
Last week, I was critical of Newcastle’s prospective buyer Amanda Staveley, for talking about wanting to do a deal, while consistently failing to do so. Well, the same applies to the Ashley regime now.
Talking about wanting to sign players is easy, getting them is hard in this window, but that is what needs to happen.
If Newcastle bring in the three players Benitez wants this month, the Spaniard will be satisfied and, more importantly, he will have superior tools to build a team that will avoid relegation. He will not have any excuses either. He will have been given what he wants, and the pressure will be on him to make it work.
Every Newcastle supporter will trust him to do so. If Benitez is happy at the start of February, wounds will be healed and everyone can get behind the team, the club will pull together and there will be unity.
The increasingly farcical takeover, the disappointment and frustration that has festered and is in danger of turning toxic, will be forgotten. The team and results will be all anyone focuses on. Staveley can be ignored, at least until safety is assured.
At the moment, the supporters do not trust Ashley because they have been let down too many times before in January. They have heard the waffle and listened to the spin and have got used to nothing happening.
More importantly, so has Benitez. He wants to trust those above him, he wants to stay at Newcastle, or at least he wants to stay at a club that lets him fight against richer, more powerful rivals, without one hand tied behind his back.
He loves Newcastle United, the city and the fans, but he has not enjoyed working for the club for some time. That needs to change if he is going to remain long term. This month is an opportunity for the relationship between manager and owner to be repaired, for trust to be restored and it has to be taken. New signings have to be made.
Newcastle have eight days to save their season and hold onto the one man keeping this divisive club united