RAFAEL BENITEZ has provided Mike Ashley with a list of attacking targets as he admits this month’s transfer business has the potential to make or break Newcastle United’s season.

Benitez, who is also targeting a goalkeeper, full-back and potentially a new midfielder, watched his side fall to within a point of the relegation zone as they suffered a 3-1 defeat at runaway league leaders Manchester City on Saturday, before Southampton claimed a 1-1 draw with Tottenham yesterday.

The Spaniard spoke to Ashley in the wake of last week’s acrimonious collapse of takeover talks with North Yorkshire financier Amanda Staveley, and was assured he would able to make signings ahead of the transfer deadline on January 31.

However, with the clock ticking, managing director Lee Charnley is still to make a breakthrough with any of the targets on Benitez’s wanted list.

The Newcastle boss is understood to be interested in three or four different forwards, with their price range reflecting the ongoing uncertainty over the exact size of the budget that Ashley is willing to grant for this month’s business.

Benitez is aware of long-term target Kevin Gameiro’s desire to leave Atletico Madrid, but the Spain international is valued at around £25m, a figure that is completely out of Newcastle’s price range. Swansea are understood to have lodged a bid of more than £20m with Atletico officials, but Gameiro is reluctant to move to the Liberty Stadium.

Tottenham have been linked with a possible loan deal, and their interest means the chances of Newcastle being to arrange a temporary transfer of their own are extremely slight.

At the opposite end of the scale, there is still an option of agreeing a loan deal for Liverpool forward Danny Ings, although even that is proving problematic as Jurgen Klopp is reluctant to lose any more attacking players while the future of Daniel Sturridge remains unclear.

Sturridge has been linked with a possible move to Inter Milan, and with Philippe Coutinho already having left Anfield to move to Barcelona, Klopp is refusing to discuss Ings’ future until he is clear about the extent of his own attacking options beyond the end of the month.

Newcastle remain interested in Leicester City outcast Islam Slimani, although with Besiktas having initiated talks about signing the Algerian striker on a permanent basis, the Magpies will find it hard to persuade the Foxes to agree to their own preference, which would be a loan deal to the end of the season.

“It is going to be a very important week for us,” said Benitez. “We have been working very hard to make sure we have the names who can help the team to stay up. We have the names, we gave a list to the owner. Now, it is just a case of waiting to see if we can do what we have to do.

“They know the names. They know what they have to do, and it doesn’t matter if it is loans or permanent signings, we need the bodies to give the team the ability to manage. This team was in the Championship and got promoted, and we don’t have much experience of the Premier League.

“We need players with quality who can give us something different or experience. We will see how many we can get. I expect someone, but we will see. I don’t know how many we can get, it is a little bit late now.”

While Karl Darlow acquitted himself reasonably well at the weekend, making a sensational second-half save from Raheem Sterling, Benitez has wanted a new goalkeeper since the start of the summer.

There have been talks with Slavia Prague over Slovakia international Martin Dubravka, and the 29-year-old is understood to have indicated a willingness to move to Tyneside this month. Ideally, Newcastle would like to set up a loan deal with a view to a permanent transfer in the summer, provided they remain in the top-flight, but Slavia officials will push for a cash sale now.

With just 14 more league games to play, Benitez’s preference would be to sign players who already boast experience of the Premier League. However, with the window due to close a week on Wednesday, he accepts he cannot be too prescriptive about his demands.

“If they have experience in the Premier League, it will be easier for us,” he said.  “But if not, they have to have different characteristics and give us something that we don’t have at the moment.”

Newcastle’s most expensive summer signing was Jacob Murphy, and the £12m arrival from Norwich City claimed his first Magpies goal at the weekend as he held his nerve to chip Ederson after Ciaran Clark’s through ball sent him scampering through the middle.

Murphy failed to make much of an impact in his first few months as a Newcastle player, but having claimed his first assist when he set up Ayoze Perez’s winner at Stoke on New Year’s Day, he is finally being to exert more of an influence.

“I’m building things up. I knew once I started playing more minutes I could produce for the team, with goals and assists. It’s all about keeping on contributing now.

“It was a great feeling to finally score for Newcastle. I’m buzzing for that, but ultimately the result didn’t go our way so that puts a little bit of a dampener on it.

“I felt confident I would score. I’d seen highlights in recent weeks that people were chipping the goalie, so I just thought, ‘Keep your composure’ and then hopefully he goes down. He did that, and I just put it over him.”

Saturday’s game followed a similar pattern to the home fixture at St James’ in December that saw Manchester City claim a hard-fought 1-0 win in the face of some determined Newcastle defending.

There were times in this weekend’s game when Newcastle had all ten of their outfield players camped on the edge of their own penalty area, but Murphy felt their willingness to attack in the second half almost paid dividends.

“We made it hard for them,” he said. “It was all about trying to contain them in the first half, and then take the chances if we got them, but that wasn’t the case in the first half. But in the second half, we went for it a bit more and created some good chances.

“We saw an opportunity and tried to take it, and were close in the game at 2-1. Maybe we could have got the equaliser, but we got stung with the third goal.

“The positives we can take is that we were creating chances against a top team. You could see in the second half, we were putting on pressure and I think we’ve got to do that more.”