RAFAEL BENITEZ has admitted Newcastle United could still enjoy a “better” transfer window - even if he knows it will never be as fruitful as he had hoped after celebrating promotion to the Championship.

The Magpies boss had his main targets in mind at the beginning of the summer and had to alter his thinking after a failure to strike the deals for players such as Tammy Abraham, Wily Caballero and an unnamed midfielder. They have been linked with more than 100 others, although not all of those have been seriously in their thinking.

Everton’s James McCarthy, who remains available at the right price, is believed to one of his preferred targets, but Newcastle have been unable to conclude a deal ever since contact was made with Goodison Park in January.

Benitez’s chances of further strengthening, particularly after this week’s signing of £5m Spaniard Joselu, hinge on whether he can move more players on and he is still banking on further adjustments to his squad before the window closes on August 31.

The Newcastle boss said: “I think it will go until the end (of the window) because you have teams with massive money and a lot of teams without money, so these teams, everybody is waiting until the last minute, maybe, to put you in a position where you have to sell players cheaply and then you are maybe trying to do the same. It depends.

“Some of the names that we are considering now have not been in the Press, so maybe there could be a surprise for you.

“It could still be a better window, I would say. When you have what you have and you have missed what you have missed, you can try to improve. But it cannot be ideal (window).”

When asked if he has had to lower his sights in the transfer market over the last few months, Benitez said: “I am analysing my squad and analysing the other teams also, and I have more or less the same idea that I had before. It depends on how we will work during the season.”

Regardless of what frustrations he has towards transfer activity, Benitez always stresses how his focus is on keeping the players he has at his disposal happy and working in tandem to deliver results – having been pressed repeatedly on what he thought of Mike Ashley’s interview with Sky Sports at the start of the week.

There are players who he is keen to move on - like Tim Krul, Jack Colback, Henri Saivet and Massadio Haidara – and he admitted there is interest in a number of his players. He knows the importance of getting things right on the pitch at Huddersfield on Sunday.

Benitez said: “I know more or less what he (Ashley) has said. Believe me, it doesn't change anything in terms of my approach to the games or the training sessions or preparations. I know what I have to do: to concentrate on the training sessions and my players. I did not watch it.

"I know what he said. I know what the fans think about the interview and I know that if I keep talking about it, I will not change anything.

“What I need to be sure about is the team is good enough to compete against Huddersfield this weekend, Nottingham Forest in midweek and West Ham the next week. I cannot change anything because it will then be (my opinion about the interview) this or that.

“I want to concentrate on the thing that depends on me: preparing the team, picking the team and approaching the game with the right mentality.”

And he didn’t want to put a figure on how many players he would still like to sign because it is about “balancing” the situation in terms of the finance.

But he would love to guide Newcastle into a top half of the table finish in his first year back in the top-flight, although he knows how difficult the Premier League is.

He said: “The difference between seventh and eighth was about 15 points last year, so there was a big gap between seventh and eighth and a pot of teams in the same pack, the same group.

“If you do well, you can be here (indicating the top of that group) and it will be a fantastic season; or you can be here (indicating the bottom of the group) doing more or less the same. Maybe a couple of games can make a big difference.

“We have to be sure that we have this feeling and this conviction that we need to keep going until the end. I told you last year, we finished strongly, we won three games at the end in a row and we were champions, so this year if we make a couple of mistakes and we lose some games in a row and everybody is panicking, we have less chance to achieve what we want to achieve.

“If you are calm and you keep working, then I am sure in the end we will be stronger and stronger. Does stronger mean that we can be in the top four? No, I'm not saying that.”

Benitez confirmed that Chancel Mbemba is fit to face Huddersfield, so he is likely to take his place at the heart of the defence alongside Jamaal Lascelles and Ciaran Clark will slot in at left-back.