Chief Sports Writer Scott Wilson assesses how Newcastle United, Middlesbrough and Sunderland fared in the January transfer window


NEWCASTLE

TOO little, too late. The hierarchy at Newcastle United will attempt to put on a brave face as they assess the club’s January business, and when deadline-day arrived, at least they managed to force through the bare minimum that was required as they signed Martin Dubravka and Islam Slimani.

But the harsh reality is that three scrambled loan signings – Kenedy arrived last week and made his debut against Burnley – represents an insufficient investment when other clubs in the bottom half of the table splashed out millions in an attempt to safeguard their Premier League status.

The Northern Echo:

Brighton broke their transfer record and threw £14m at PSV Eindhoven to land Jurgen Locadia. Southampton splashed out almost £20m to sign Guido Carillo from Monaco. Swansea spent more than £20m on Andre Ayew from West Ham.

Perhaps the signings will not work, but at least those clubs have done all they can to try to keep themselves in the top-flight. Newcastle knew they had to offer around £22m to prise their leading target, Nicolai Jorgensen, from Feyenoord, but their highest bid did not exceed £15m. Never mind failing to push out the boat; not for the first time under Mike Ashley, the good ship Newcastle United failed to even leave the harbour.

Ashley will claim there are mitigating factors for his continued refusal to release the purse strings. The collapse of takeover talks with Amanda Staveley’s PCP Capital Partners group could not have come at a worse time in relation to the transfer window, and for all the talk of Staveley being willing to push through £30m of funds for transfer spending, the North Yorkshire financier has contributed to the current mess.

Nevertheless, Ashley was quick to brief his preferred media outlet, Sky Sports, that he would be throwing money in Rafael Benitez’s direction if he remained in charge throughout January. Benitez supplied a list of viable targets at the start of the month – all too predictably, the money failed to materialise.

So is the squad to the end of the season good enough to stay up? On the evidence of his debut on Wednesday night, Kenedy will certainly add some welcome pace and trickery down the left-hand side, but Newcastle’s prospects could well stand or fall on the performances of Slimani.

The fact he has arrived on Tyneside nursing a thigh injury is hardly ideal, but even if he only plays in ten or 11 matches, his goals could be the difference between survival and relegation. Joselu is Newcastle’s highest scorer this season with four goals. If Slimani matches or surpasses that tally during his loan spell, the Magpies might be able to clamber to safety.

Dubravka will make his debut against Crystal Palace on Sunday, and he arrives with a decent pedigree as an established Slovakia international. Karl Darlow and Rob Elliot have done okay this season, but neither has been completely reliable.

In terms of exits, Newcastle trimmed some of their fat on a hectic deadline day. Jack Colback, Jamie Sterry and Henri Saivet were ushered through the exit door, Rolando Aarons secured a surprise move to Italy and Freddie Woodman heads to Aberdeen for some much-needed experience.

Aleksandar Mitrovic thought he was going to back to Brussels, but ended up taking a circuitous route to South London. He wasn’t the only one left wondering what on earth had gone wrong.


MIDDLESBROUGH

Tony Pulis spent most of January promising a quiet end to the transfer window at Middlesbrough, but in the end, it proved to be anything but. A run of three home games without a goal tends to focus the mind, and Pulis clearly felt the need for a much bigger overhaul than he initially envisaged when he agreed to replace Garry Monk on Boxing Day.

The Boro boss allowed four players to leave on Wednesday, and tellingly, three had been recruited by Monk just five or six months earlier. The two managers are polar opposites in terms of their preferred playing styles, and it did not take long for Pulis to determine that Monk’s choice of signings was not to his liking.

That is the harsh reality of the football business, although Cyrus Christie and Martin Braithwaite can probably feel a little hard done by given the quality of some of their performances in the first half of the season. Christie looked good as an attacking right-back under Monk, but Pulis likes his defenders to defend and the Irishman’s face was never going to fit. He should suit Fulham’s approach perfectly.

Braithwaite showed flashes of the ability that persuaded Monk to spend £9m to sign him from Toulouse, but his impact tended to be fleeting and he rarely took a game by the scruff of its neck. Ashley Fletcher, who has made the short trip to Sunderland, was a major disappointment, although he could still have a long-term future on Wearside if he resurrects his career on the banks of the Wear. The less said about Adlene Guedioura, whose contract was terminated to enable him to join Nottingham Forest, the better.

Wednesday’s incomings were much more reflective of what Pulis wants his teams to be. Mo Besic has not made much of an impact at Everton, but he was a success at the Hungarian club, Ferencvaros, and his athletic, physical style should fit perfectly in a Pulis midfield.

Martin Cranie is a versatile defender who can play anywhere across the back four, and while he has been bought primarily to replace Christie and provide competition for Ryan Shotton at right-back, he could also find himself playing at centre-half if Daniel Ayala’s injury problems do not settle down.

Jack Harrison is the most interesting of Middlesbrough’s three January signings, as he has established quite a reputation at New York City and is clearly highly-regarded within the set-up at Manchester City.

The Northern Echo:

Boro signed one ‘bright, young thing’ in the shape of Lewis Baker, only for the Chelsea loanee to fail to make any kind of an impression in the first half of the season. It is be hoped Harrison fares rather better, and while there will always be a risk in signing a 21-year-old who has never previously played in the Championship, the England Under-21 international could turn out to be something of a revelation. Either way, it will be intriguing to find out.

Do the changes make Boro more likely to claim a play-off place? They certainly make them more malleable to what Pulis is looking for, although some of the fringe players that had been expected to leave – Fabio da Silva and Adam Clayton in particular – still remain. There is still a sense of a team in transition, although that is generally what happens when a manager leaves halfway through a season.


SUNDERLAND

Chris Coleman has described Sunderland’s transfer window as “brutal”, and if the former Wales boss did not know the full horrors of what he was letting himself in for when he agreed to take over at the Stadium of Light in November, he can be in no doubt now.

Nevertheless, a complete disaster was avoided as the Black Cats managed to bring in five players despite having no money to spend, and while it remains to be seen whether that is sufficient to stave off the threat of relegation to League One, both Coleman and Martin Bain have tried to make the best of a thoroughly bad job.

Having allowed James Vaughan to follow Lewis Grabban through the exit door, it was imperative Sunderland landed a new striker, and while they had to go round the houses in the final week of the window, Ashley Fletcher finally made the short trip from Teesside to supplement Joel Asoro and Josh Maja in attack.

Fletcher wasn’t Coleman’s first choice at the start of the month – there is a chance he did not even figure in the top ten – but with Ellis Short refusing to commit anything to squad strengthening despite Sunderland’s position in the Championship’s bottom three, it eventually became a simple case of taking what was on offer.

The Northern Echo:

Coleman was unfortunate on a number of occasions – Jon Walters would have come had he not damaged his knee, Ben Woodburn might well have left Liverpool had Phillipe Coutinho’s departure not muddied the waters just as Daniel Sturridge was also agitating for a move – but Fletcher could prove an inspired acquisition.

He impressed during a previous loan spell with Barnsley, and while he has struggled to make much of an impression at Middlesbrough, both Manchester United and West Ham felt he was good enough to play in the Premier League. His performances could be crucial to Sunderland’s fate.

The same might well be true of Lee Camp, with the goalkeeper having arrived on deadline-day to try to solve a problem that has crippled Sunderland all season. Again, Coleman looked at a host of different goalkeepers before settling on Camp, but the 33-year-old boasts a large amount of experience and should be ready to hit the ground running in tomorrow’s game with Ipswich. Whatever happens, his performances can surely not be any worse than those produced by Robbin Ruiter and Jason Steele this season.

Ovie Ejaria arrives with a sky-high reputation in Liverpool’s reserves, and for all that the Championship can be a tough breeding ground for 20-year-olds, it will be interesting to see how he fares. Jake Clarke-Salter has already bedded in since leaving Chelsea, while Kazenga LuaLua showed flashes of pace as he made his debut from the substitutes’ bench at Birmingham.

Lamine Kone returned to the fray at St Andrew’s, and while Sunderland were willing to listen to offers for the Ivory Coast international, none materialised. He was extremely rusty as he struggled on Tuesday night, but in terms of raw ability, he remains one of the most naturally talented centre-halves in the Championship. How Sunderland could do with some of that talent being realised in the next three months.

Didier Ndong also boasted ability, but he has left to join Watford and will not be missed. However, like the unwelcome guest who refuses to leave a party, Jack Rodwell remains.