“EXHAUSTING, frustrating and a complete waste of time.” Mike Ashley’s pithy comment might have been directed at Amanda Staveley last week after talks about a potential takeover broke down, but if he does not live up to his promises in the next nine days, the Newcastle owner could find his words thrown back in his face. Unwittingly, Ashley might well have provided the perfect summation of Newcastle’s season.

The Magpies’ players were certainly exhausted as they trudged from the field at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday night, having been subjected to another Sergio Aguero masterclass that leaves them just a point above the relegation zone.

Their manager, Rafael Benitez, is undoubtedly frustrated, fearing that the lack of investment that proved so crippling in the summer is about to be repeated in the current transfer window. Ashley has been furnished with a list of targets, and has supposedly given the ‘green light’ for meaningful investment. As Benitez knows only too well, though, saying something and actually following through to make it a reality are two completely different things when it comes to the Newcastle boardroom.

All of which leaves the club’s supporters wondering if this season’s return to the Premier League is going to be a complete waste of time. Having expended so much effort to regain their top-flight status last season, the Magpies are in grave danger of throwing all of their good work away. And if things go wrong this time around, it will be infinitely more difficult to repair them in the summer. Unlike the last time Newcastle were relegated, the current squad does not contain a Moussa Sissoko or a Georginio Wijnaldum, whose sales effectively funded Benitez’s last rebuilding job.

It is no exaggeration to claim that what happens between now and January 31 could well shape Newcastle’s future for the next three or four years. As ever with arguably the most dysfunctional club in English football, events on the pitch are once again playing second fiddle to the political posturing that is dominating proceedings off it.

“We have a very good team that is working very hard, and giving everything,” said Benitez. “But still the Premier League is the Premier League. It is not the Premier League of two years ago, it is the Premier League now, when teams are spending £40m or £100m or whatever.

“I said from the beginning that teams like Burnley, Bournemouth and Swansea, who were in the Premier League already, they have 60-70 per cent of their squad with experience.

“What you have is a lot of players in promoted teams without experience of the Premier League. If the teams who are already in the Premier League can add two or three players with experience, they will be even better. Promoted sides need at least five players, so there is a massive difference in terms of money and quality.

“We are organised, just like Huddersfield and Brighton. But after, sometimes the difference is a couple of players that, on their own, can make the difference.”

Newcastle simply do not have those players, and while it is clearly nonsensical to imagine they can conjure up an Aguero or a Leroy Sane in the next week-and-a-half, it should not be asking too much for them to sign the centre-forward, winger and left-back that Benitez feels are crucial to his side’s chances of survival.

A new striker is an imperative, and having watched relegation rivals Brighton shatter their transfer record last week to land £14m man Jurgen Locadia from PSV Eindhoven, Benitez is well within his rights to question why he is having to soldier on with Joselu, an honest worker who clearly lacks quality, Dwight Gayle, a Championship bully boy who looks ill-equipped for the Premier League, and Aleksandar Mitrovic, who would have been driven out of Tyneside in the summer if a willing buyer had come forward.

That Newcastle’s transfer record remains the £16.8m that was paid to sign Michael Owen in 2005 speaks volumes for the lack of ambition under Ashley, but while there is no chance of that figure being surpassed this month, there surely has to be an attacking acquisition if the Magpies are to have any chance of remaining in the top-flight.

Joselu was always going to struggle to make an impression at the weekend, but his inability to hold up even the simplest of passes clearly infuriated his manager who was gesticulating wildly on the touchline.

Similarly, while Isaac Hayden did not let himself down as he was pressed into action as a third centre-half, the fact that Benitez was forced into such a move with Florian Lejeune still unavailable provided a graphic illustration of the limitations of the squad he is having to marshal. As Benitez has conceded on more than one occasion, even against much more limited opposition than Manchester City, Newcastle’s players have to run twice as hard as anybody else just to keep up.

“When Liverpool beat Man City, they had five players who could make the difference on their own,” said Benitez. “We don’t have these kind of players. But we are trying to win and score goals, against a team that creates 15 chances.

“Everyone has to have their own ideas, and manage the game how they can, but we are missing a little bit of experience, and in the first half we gave the ball away too easily. On the counter-attack, we have to be a little bit better, but that means quality and experience.”

Benitez’s defensive tactics will once again be questioned, but while Manchester City might have boasted more than 80 per cent of possession in Saturday’s game, there was still a point midway through the second half when Newcastle would justifiably have felt they were capable of getting something.

True, they were behind, with Aguero having glanced home Kevin de Bruyne’s cross with the faintest of touches before converting from the penalty spot after Javier Manquillo bundled over Raheem Sterling.

But when Jacob Murphy galloped clear to chip Ederson and claim his first goal in a Newcastle shirt, there was a glimmer of hope that had also been evident in the closing stages of last month’s home game at St James’ Park.

Ederson produced a decent save to deny Mo Diame, with Ayoze Perez firing a follow-up effort at John Stones, and while Aguero snuffed out any hope of the most unlikely of comebacks when he claimed his hat-trick with a simple finish following a sublime piece of skill from Sane, Newcastle emerged from the Etihad with their dignity just about intact. That that could be regarded as something of an achievement is as much an indictment of the lack of competitiveness in the Premier League as of their own limitations.

“I think the gap (to the top teams) is bigger now (than when he started in Spain),” said Benitez. “Teams are spending more money. My first time with Extremadura was with Barcelona and we lost 1-0. But we were 4-4-2 and organised, and pressing high.

“Yes, the difference between us was massive, but now you can see against these teams that even if you play a good game, you can concede four goals and lose. There is a massive difference between the top six and the rest.”