NEWCASTLE UNITED are close to finalising a loan deal for Chelsea midfielder Kenedy and are also hoping to sign Belgian midfielder Dennis Praet, but Rafael Benitez accepts the rest of his business in the final eight days of the transfer window will be dependent on the number of fringe players he can move on.

Magpies officials agreed the outline of a season-long loan for Kenedy more than a week ago, but Antonio Conte was reluctant to release the 21-year-old until his own midfield problems resolved themselves.

Conte is close to completing a couple of signings of his own, and Newcastle hope to be able to confirm Kenedy’s arrival ahead of Saturday’s game with West Ham.

That will provide a much-needed boost after a testing start to the season, and with Newcastle also having held discussions with Sampdoria about Praet, who joined the Serie A club in a €10m move from Anderlecht last summer, Benitez remains hopeful he will be presiding over a much-altered squad once the window closes.

“We are in a normal situation, and the way we have to deal with this situation is key,” said the Newcastle boss, ahead of this evening’s Carabao Cup second-round game with Nottingham Forest. “If you have experience, you know that by September 1, everything will change.

“It will be different when the window shuts because we are expecting players to come. We are trying to move players in, and at the same time we are trying to move players out. It will be different, 100 per cent.”

Disposing of Newcastle’s unwanted fringe players holds the key to the next few days, with Tim Krul, Achraaf Lazaar, Massadio Haidara, Grant Hanley, Jack Colback, Henri Saivet and Emmanuel Riviere all having been told they do not have a future in the first-team squad.

It has been difficult to set up deals for a number of those players, with Colback’s £70,000-a-week wages proving a major obstacle and Hanley understood to be reluctant to drop back down to the Championship while he still has four more years of his current deal to run.

Newcastle are understood to be close to completing a couple of outgoings though, and Benitez admits it is hard to preside over squad with so many players out of first-team contention.

“We have to make the changes,” he said. “We can only have 25 players on the squad list, so if you are not in the squad, if you do not have a squad number, then we have to find a solution. You cannot perform miracles – you have to tell people that even though they have been good professionals, they will not be part of the squad.”

Newcastle return to action against Forest tonight, with Benitez set to make a host of changes from the side that lost at Huddersfield four days ago.

Jacob Murphy, Mo Diame, Joselu and Aleksandar Mitrovic are all expected to start after finding themselves on the bench at the John Smith’s Stadium, while 20-year-old midfielder Dan Barlaser has been promoted to the squad from the academy set-up.

“It is important we start winning again,” said Benitez. “But at the same time, we’ve got a squad and we’ve got to use that squad. If we progress, then fine. If we cannot, it is because we’re not good enough yet to approach three competitions with the confidence that we can win against any team.”

Newcastle (probable, 4-2-3-1): Darlow; Manquillo, Mbemba, Clark, Gamez; Hayden, Diame; Murphy, Joselu, Atsu; Mitrovic.