Eddie Howe drops new Newcastle United transfer hint

But Eddie Howe has warned fans that there aren’t “vast sums” ready to be spent in the January window, though the club’s head coach does hope to add a player to his squad in the New Year.

Relegation-threatened Newcastle signed five players – Bruno Guimaraes, Matt Targett, Dan Burn, Kieran Trippier and Chris Wood – in January.

And the club further strengthened in the summer window with the capture of club-record signing Alexander Isak, Sven Botman and Nick Pope.

Sporting director Dan Ashworth labelled that level of spending as “unsustainable” in October, and the third-placed club, working within financial fair play constraints, will have a different approach to this window.

“We’re in a very different position to where we were last year when we knew we needed to act and get some good numbers through the door to try and lift the group, really,” said Howe.

"Now we’re in a different position. We’re in a different position also with financial fair play last year where we didn’t have a legacy of transfer fees, a gap there we could attack. We’re in a different position now. We’re unsure what we want the window to look like.”

Howe has previously said that the club, which had looked at wingers in the summer, has a “flexible” approach to the window.

“I'd like to think I'm an honest guy, but I don't know whether we can get the right player,” said Howe. “Improving our starting XI is very difficult without spending vast sums of money that we don't have.

"Improving the squad is maybe a different thing, but do we want to improve the squad? Or do we want to improve the team?”

Howe’s also mindful that the club must “get the balance right” between freshening up the tight-knit squad – and not letting the group become stale.

“You’ve got to be very careful in my position you don’t do something which unsettles the group,” said Howe.

“You’ve also got to be mindful of the fact that you don’t want the group to go stale. Getting that balance right is crucial.”