Steve McClaren: "I think the targets we have talked about and the positions to improve, we are talking about one, two, three, four, five....they don't all have to be top ones.
"We have to make sure not just the team is right, but the squad is right. There is a willingness from the club to do that, but there is not a panic in a business sense to do it.
"We're close. We are working very hard behind the scenes.
"When you buy players for up to £5million, there are loads of them and in that respect, Newcastle would be top of the tree. When it's £5-10million, there are still a lot of them and we would be right up there competing with that group - and there are a lot of players in that group.
"When you go above that and look for a calibre of player to improve what we've got and to achieve our objectives - which we know, and thank goodness we know them - that makes a huge difference.
"The objectives have been set and we have to fulfil them, and that's what we are doing, so when you go £10million-plus - and there is a lot of speculation about that level of player at the moment - they are Europa League and Champions League players at top clubs.
"There aren't so many players in that bracket, so the competition is higher. It is more difficult to recognise their availability and get things done."