Have we made any mistakes by letting these players go?

Was letting Best and Co go a mistake? So far it looks as though we've been having a bit of a summer clearout here at Newcastle United.

A lot of the confirmed news has been about players leaving whether they be out of contract or whether they be by means of an actual transfer.

We've seen Peter Lovenkrands, Alan Smith, Leon Best and Danny Guthrie all shorn from the United squad over the last few weeks with only one man confirmed as coming in as a replacement in the shape of Romain Amalfitano. Granted there is a lot of speculation linking us with new names to bolster our numbers further but as things stand have we made any mistakes by allowing any of the aforementioned to be shown the door before we've got players in to replace them?

I suppose that one will only be answered when the transfer window slams shut and we can assess what we have to go forward with. Obviously Alan Smith is one I'm not exactly bothered about leaving. He was on huge wages, which wasn't his fault of course, but he'd also become a player that just wasn't good enough to feature for us any more. Age and injuries catching up with him perhaps?

The other three I'm not exactly over the moon about seeing leave St James' Park. This is not to say that I think they are the best players we can get as, quite simply, they aren't. However they can and have done a job for us in the past and would have continued to do so again until we got the players in to effectively make them a redundant option in team selections.

This is the part that is worrying me more than anything. Lovenkrands, Best and Guthrie have all been forced to step in at one time or another and whilst the best solution is to just sign better players I think we all know that it isn't quite as simple as that. I'm not overly enamoured that we've let three players go who could still contribute in a limited capacity without having any replacements through the door first basically.

This is one season where we need numbers and even though the likes of Best, Lovenkrands and Guthrie wouldn't be first choice they could have proved useful in the event of an emergency. I do have a feeling the club have something lined up however, but at the moment we are looking a bit thin on the ground.

And that needs sorting before the season starts!