YOU have to say one thing about the Newcastle United hierarchy, for a group that have a strained relationship with the media – and that’s probably putting it mildly – they do love issuing an official club statement.

Sure enough, less than 24 hours before the start of the new season, an official message appeared this afternoon, counter-signed by managing director Lee Charnley, manager Rafael Benitez and captain Jamaal Lascelles, attempting to draw a line under the bitterness and acrimony that have exploded this summer, fuelling a series of supporters’ protests under the banner, ‘If Rafa goes, we go’.

“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,” said the statement. “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.”

It later continued: “Now, it’s about all of us pulling in the same direction, for the good of the club. With the transfer window now closed, the focus should be on unity and getting behind the efforts on the pitch.”

In other words, ‘Put away those protest banners, there’s nothing to see here’.

Benitez adopted the same tone in his press conference, claiming Newcastle had “done well” in the transfer window, and arguing that the addition of seven new players had strengthened the squad in key areas. Never mind that two were already on the books at the end of last season, or that four others were effectively like-for-like replacements for players that had left.

The harmonious tone was briefly interrupted when deadline-day arrival Federico Fernandez conceded he was joining a club that could well be involved in a relegation battle. “Our first objective has to be just to stay up,” said the centre-half. “And then, depending on how we start, we can think about looking forward and finishing as high in the table as possible. But at the moment, with the speculation that is around, with how much rival teams have improved, it will be tough.”

Eventually, even Benitez was forced to concede that survival has to be Newcastle’s primary objective, so how much credence should be given to the notion that the current squad is a marked improvement on the one that finished last season?

Clearly, the re-signing of Martin Dubravka and Kenedy is a positive development, but given they spent the second half of last season on Tyneside, their return can hardly be portrayed as a progressive step.

So a verdict on Newcastle’s summer business effectively hinges on an assessment of whether Fabian Schar, Federico Fernandez, Ki Sung-yueng, Yoshinori Muto and Salomon Rondon are an improvement on Chancel Mbemba, Mikel Merino, Dwight Gayle and Aleksandar Mitrovic.

Defensively, Mbemba’s departure does not represent a major blow, but given his importance alongside Jamaal Lascelles last season, the cruciate injury that will sideline Florian Lejeune for much of the first half of the campaign is a significant setback.

With Lejeune out of the picture, either Schar or Fernandez will have to step up and prove they are an able replacement.

In attack, Benitez clearly had major reservations about both Gayle and Mitrovic, so at least he now finds himself with two attackers who will start with a clean slate. Neither Muto nor Rondon boasts a particularly impressive scoring record, but both fit the mould of what Benitez wants from a forward.

“Muto is someone who can run and also use his pace, and he is a worker,” said the Newcastle boss. “He is someone like Dwight who can have chances and score. He is very clinical.

“Rondon is strong. He can keep the ball and link with the others, and at the same time, he has more mobility. He can give us this physicality and the kind of play that sometimes we were missing when we were under pressure. He can hold the ball and move forward.

“Joselu is doing a good job, but maybe is not as strong as Rondon. Ayoze (Perez) has clever movements, but maybe is not as quick as Muto.”

Benitez clearly regards the duo’s arrival as a step forward, but even if Newcastle raise their standards marginally, there has to be a fear that other teams in the division have made a much bigger forward step.

The likes of Everton and West Ham have spent extensively, while Fulham became the first newly-promoted club to splash out more than £100m in the summer window.

Money isn’t the answer to everything, but it is generally a pretty good indicator of where a team will finish, which brings us back to that net profit of around £20m.

The worry, ahead of tomorrow’s season opener with Spurs, is that no amount of positive statements in the world will make the sums add up.