Are Newcastle doing well in this transfer window?

Love them or hate them, transfer windows are now a part of the modern game.

They can be unsettling times as speculation mounts over key players at various clubs, but they can also be exciting times with all the names and resultant speculation being thrown about.

Newcastle have only Hatem Ben Arfa to show for their endeavours in this transfer window, with one more player to arrive at St James' Park before the window slams shut until the summer if you go by what Alan Pardew has been saying.

I think we would all like to see new faces through the door as they generally tend to improve the team, but in reality these wholesale changes just don't happen in January. The unsettling effect on the team can be something that has a negative impact on results, team harmony and so on.

So with that in mind, I wonder if Newcastle are doing the right thing in this window? Are they right to not go out and get three or four new faces in whilst shipping a couple out? It's a tough one, but I think they are on the right track.

Generally speaking, most of the work done by the club has been to secure the better players in the squad on new contracts. Joey Barton looks set to be the next one who will be tied down to a new deal, and he will follow in the footsteps of Steven Taylor, Nile Ranger, Andy Carroll, Tim Krul, Haris Vuckic aswell as Hatem Ben Arfa and Dan Gosling who will all be with us for at least the next four years.

Getting one player, of the required calibre and in the required position (debate as appropriate) should just be enough in my opinion. Injuries haven't helped us, but neither has having a fair amount of players on our books that either can't be moved on as they appear to be useless (Xisco) or can't move on because they are having to play in the absence of first-team players.

We have a 22 man squad at the minute, which will naturally increase to 23 in the summer due to Andy Carroll having to be named in the squad of 25 because of his age, so there isn't much room for movement. Most of the major movement will be done in the summer, by most clubs in my opinion, and I expect that we will be no different.

If we survive I forsee a summer of rebuilding. Squad players will, or should get moved on and be replaced with better alternatives with the aim of making the entire team stronger. Derek Llambias said during the summer that there wouldn't be much cash to splash this season, but he did say that should we survive there will be more cash available. I'm watching that closely.

So what do you reckon? Are we being sensible in this window? Has our league position allowed us to be sensible?

I guess the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and if we can get to February 1st having not lost any key players whilst bringing the one player in (Stephen Ireland rumoured again) that Pardew is looking at, and having secured more key players, I would say that it would have been a good window.

What d'ya reckon?