Do we really need to sign more players?

Steady on. Rather than just going by the headline I'd advise you to read the article before you make an arse of yourself by leaving a sarcastic comment.

With the public announcement out of the way I can get round to the crux of the article. I keep hearing people say that we need to sign more players or that we have a small squad. Comments like that basically. It's not quite as easy as that though thanks to the 25-man squad rule.

It's worth pointing out at this point that Newcastle had one of the larger squads last season and named 23 players in their allotted 25-man quota. Chelsea on the other hand originally named something like 18. Just where do people expect us to put all of these new signings that they keep blathering on about?

It's not squad size that is the problem for us - it's quality in depth that is the issue.

People go on about our 'wafer thin' squad but we can only increase it numbers by a maximum of two, unless we start selling players of course. This leaves us in a difficult position.

It's hard to imagine NUFC not naming any of the so-called big earners that offer little, like Alan Smith or Xisco, in the squad of 25. Can you honestly see the club being willing to pay £60,0000-a-week for a player that can't even be called upon in an emergency? No, neither can I, which means the only way we can add quality in depth to the squad is by waiting for the deadwood to drift off.

In a way Newcastle have already started this process. Out have gone Sol Campbell, Shefki Kuqi and Kevin Nolan to be replaced with Yohann Cabaye, Demba Ba and Sylvain Marveaux. Now it's early days of course, but on paper you would have to say that the three in are better than at least two that have left.

So in answer to my title question, yes we do need to sign more players, but we first need to create some room. All we can realistically do at the moment is work on a one in and one out system, so until that process picks up we just don't really have the room to improve.

There is still a lot of work to be done with regard to shaping Newcastle for the future. It's all very easy to say sign him, him, and him, but when you look at it a bit deeper you start to realise that it isn't quite as simple as that. Players will have to be moved on at some point, which isn't easy with the likes of Alan Smith and Xisco being the proof. The quicker that is done the quicker we can get on with evolving the squad.

The recklessness of the past is still haunting us today!