Newcastle United have issued a statement to inform supporters that they believe that the first-team squad has been sufficiently strengthened during the summer transfer window.
The Magpies have made seven first-team additions ahead of the new Premier League campaign, but the North-East outfit have still made a profit of approximately £20m.
The majority of the club’s supporters – and manager Rafael Benitez – had hoped that more funds would be allocated to extra signings, but managing director Lee Charnley has dismissed suggestions that ambition has not been shown in recent months.
In a statement, Charnley said: “Doing good business in a transfer window is about ending the window clearly stronger than when you started and we believe we have done this. The view we all share is that we have a better squad now than the one that finished tenth last season and all involved have worked tirelessly to make this happen.
“Collectively, we must extend praise to Steve Nickson and his recruitment team. Their operations are year-round, but they have worked day and night in recent months to support efforts to enhance the squad.
“We are all excited about the seven players who have joined us this summer. Their combined experience in the Premier League and at an international level – with three of them appearing at this summer’s World Cup for their respective countries – cannot fail to strengthen us. Martin Dubravka and Kenedy have already proven themselves to be fantastic players here and we are confident that Ki Sung-yueng, Fabian Schar, Yoshinori Muto, Salomon Rondon and Federico Fernandez will be excellent additions to the dressing room.
“Given our finishing position last season, we already had a team of players who were more than capable of performing well in the Premier League. They have shown heart, guts and determination and the inference that they are ‘Championship’ players and not good enough is unfair and untrue. The players all believe in themselves and in the quality of the squad, and we all believe in the players.
“Now, it’s about all of us pulling in the same direction, for the good of the club. This came through strongly in a recent positive call between our owner and senior members of the squad, who agreed that better dialogue going forward will benefit all parties and is in the best interests of the club.”
Newcastle begin the new top-flight campaign with a home fixture against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday afternoon.