The only arrivals this season have been free transfer Lee Bowyer and loanee Michael Bridges, while a number of players have headed out of St James’ Park.
That coupled with the lack of Champions League money seemed to point to a lack of funds to strengthen the squad.
Shepherd insists though that the club has money to spend and that this season isn’t a total write-off.
"I would settle for winning the UEFA Cup now, definitely," he told the Sunday Sun.
"Look at Celtic last season, it was fantastic. If we progress in the UEFA Cup we can turn this season around.
"We have shown we have resilience within this football club. We have everything in place to be successful, we have got the stadium, the training pitches, the academy, the team and we have a great set of lads.
"We have all the ingredients for success, we just have to keep at it. I was concerned at the start of the season but I knew we had too much quality to be in trouble.
"We have never ever been short of coming up with the funds for our manager if he required a player that suited Newcastle."