IF Mike Ashley’s grand plan for Newcastle United was working, the club would not be signing Andros Townsend for £12m this month.

When Steve McClaren spoke of planning “for the next three transfer windows” in the wake of his appointment in the summer, Townsend was not at the top of the Magpies’ wanted list.

Circumstances change though, and Newcastle’s January transfer business is being conducted amid the backdrop of a relegation campaign that has become increasingly precarious. Even Ashley has had to accept that remaining in the Premier League is the overriding objective for the next four months.

Newcastle thought they had signed a top-class winger when they shelled out £12m to sign Florian Thauvin in the summer, but the Frenchman’s arrival has proved a disaster. Lacking both the physical and mental strength required to survive in the Premier League, Thauvin’s Magpies career is already as good as over.

With McClaren firmly wedded to a 4-2-3-1 formation, and Aleksandar Mitrovic’s attacking strengths largely dependent on a flow of balls from the flanks, a natural wide man was an essential requirement this month.

McClaren argued that he could not afford to bed in another callow 20-something with no previous experience of English football while he was trying to haul his side out of the bottom three.

For once, his words have not fallen on deaf ears. With Townsend following Jonjo Shelvey through the arrivals’ door, Newcastle’s recruitment team have finally accepted there is a benefit to signing players from the Premier League.

Townsend’s capture is not without risk. The 24-year-old has played just 64 minutes of Premier League football this season and was farmed out in nine different loan deals before breaking through at Spurs. To date, he has achieved more in an England shirt than with any of his club sides.

It can be argued that Newcastle have paid over the odds to sign him, but that’s what happens when you find yourselves in the bottom three in January.

Townsend will surely achieve more in the final 15 games of the season than Thauvin would have, and with his place in England’s Euro 2016 squad at stake, it can only be to Newcastle’s benefit that they have signed a player with plenty to prove.