This is why Newcastle United did not sign a striker – and ruled out Jarrod Bowen move

The club has signed three players – Valentino Lazaro, Danny Rose and Nabil Bentaleb – in this month’s transfer window.

Bruce also revealed that Newcastle had had a £35million bid for a midfielder accepted – only for the player, thought to be Lille's Boubakary Soumare, to reject the move.

Fans have questioned why that money wasn’t used to bid for Hull City’s Jarrod Bowen, who Bruce signed as an unknown during his time at the KCOM Stadium and is the subject of a bid from West Ham United.

Bruce said: “Why? Because of the strikers we've got, I just think the creativity of us is very difficult for a striker. You can have as good striker as you can up the pitch, but if you can't create enough?

“That's where I think we fall a bit short. I think we have to better, a bit more creative, as a team.

“It's how can I improve us without just putting all our attention (on the strikers).”

Bruce – who hopes to have injured strikers Andy Carroll, Dwight Gayle and Yoshinori Muto available for the February 16 game against Arsenal – felt that the right striker wasn’t available.

“There wasn't a striker to be had at that sort of money – and that's the top and bottom of it,” said United’s head coach.

“Who can we buy who can make a difference to us? There simply isn't anyone who is better than what we've got, in my opinion.”

Asked for his reflections on the window, Bruce said: “Two weeks ago, I didn't think I was going to be in a market for a left-back (Danny Rose). I'm very pleased to get somebody of his quality.

“I would have loved the big one to happen. Of course, we all would have loved the big one to happen, but it didn't.

“Overall, I'm quite pleased we've brought two or three bits of quality after losing two players, Dummy (Paul Dummett) and Jetro (Willems), who will be out of the squad. To get that sort of quality in, I'm delighted.”