JUST over three weeks of the transfer window to go, and Newcastle United find themselves in a familiar position.

“At the moment, we have the same players, more or less, that we had before,” said Rafael Benitez last week as he returned to public view. “We are in the starting position again.” On all previous evidence, it would be fanciful to imagine Newcastle suddenly breaking into a sprint towards the finish.

This is clearly proving a frustrating summer window for a number of clubs, with the World Cup having extended the traditional post-season break and a majority of Premier League teams involved in a high-stakes game of brinkmanship that makes them extremely reluctant to lose any of their players until a cast-iron replacement is in place.

Nevertheless, deals have gone through, with a number of Newcastle’s rivals having decisively loosened the purse strings. West Ham United have broken their transfer record and splashed out more than £50m on Felipe Anderson and Andriy Yarmolenko. Huddersfield have completed a permanent deal for Monaco defender Terence Kongolo, Leicester paid Norwich £22m for James Maddison and Southampton signed striker Mohamed Elyounoussi from Basel. Had any of those players joined Newcastle, they would have done so in a club-record deal.

Instead, the Magpies have ploughed their usual path, securing cut-price additions or chasing loan deals. Martin Dubravka has joined permanently from Sparta Prague, while Kenedy has re-joined on a second loan deal from Chelsea. Ki Sung-yueng was recruited as a free agent following his release from Swansea City. Three players for a combined outlay of around £6m once Kenedy’s loan fee is factored in. Another successful window for Mike Ashley.

It doesn’t look that way for Benitez, who has effectively watched his employers sign three players just to stand still. Actually, that’s probably not true. If anything, they’ve gone backwards. Kenedy and Dubravka were already in situ at the end of last season, while it is hard to argue that Ki, at the age of 29, is much of an upgrade on Mikel Merino, who left in a £10m move to Real Sociedad. Oh, and Islam Slimani has also returned to Leicester. Admittedly, he didn’t play much last season, but that still leaves Newcastle another player down in the attacking department.

With the transfer window due to close on August 9, two days before the start of the new Premier League season, Newcastle need a striker, a winger and an attacking midfielder as an absolute minimum. It could also be argued they would benefit massively from a back-up striker, a right-back and another centre-half.

And that’s before anyone else leaves. Aleksandar Mitrovic will surely be on his way this summer, although Fulham are still struggling to put together an acceptable financial package, while Isaac Hayden will also have to be replaced if he departs in the wake of his transfer request. Jack Colback, Henri Saivet and Achraf Lazaar are being touted to all and sundry, and Matt Ritchie could also leave if Newcastle opt to cash in on interest from Stoke City.

Does anyone seriously think Ashley and Lee Charnley will sanction eight or nine signings in the final three weeks of the window? Benitez was speaking last week about the need for “two or three attacking additions”, but was forced to admit “we have plenty of work (still to do)” in the same breath. The clock is ticking, and at things stand, nothing is particularly close.

That is a major worry because the current regime have a long and undistinguished track record for making do. Whenever Ashley feels like he is being backed into a corner, his favoured reaction is to throw his toys from the pram. Whenever Charnley starts to feel the heat in the negotiating room, he finds himself unable to ‘get things over the line’.

That would make Newcastle extremely vulnerable next season, and Benitez still seems confident that deals will come to fruition. Andros Townsend perhaps, despite Roy Hodgson’s weekend ‘hands off warning’? Maybe Salomon Rondon given the £16.5m buyout clause in his contract at West Brom? Or alternatively, whoever is on the second or third page of Benitez’s wanted list and available for a knockdown fee?

At the start of the summer, it seemed certain that Newcastle’s 13-year-old transfer record would go, but the £16.8m they shelled out to sign Michael Owen from Real Madrid could yet remain intact for another summer.

That would be a damning indictment of Ashley’s lack of ambition, but would be perfectly in keeping with the window so far.