"We've been very close" - Eddie Howe's full quotes on Newcastle's transfer situation

In the days following Newcastle's 4-0 defeat to Celtic over the weekend, more and more quotes have trickled out from Eddie Howe following his first big chat with the media this summer.

Much has been made of his comments on Alexander Isak's future and reaction to Paul Mitchell's surprise exit, but the boss also had a LOT to say on transfers.

Alongside Howe's words on what has been a frustrating summer so far, our manager also discussed his confidence around bringing in new faces and the factors that have been working against us, with our inability to offer enormous wages a clear factor.

Howe also revealed that a few deals have been "very close", only for them to end up elsewhere for various reasons. It's not clear who he is referring to, but our attempts to land Liam Delap, Joao Pedro and Hugo Ekitike were made quite public before they joined two of our 'big six' rivals instead.

We've gathered all of his quotes on transfers from over the weekend, which you can read in full below:

Howe: "We've been very close"

“I wish I could give you clarity, and some kind of guarantee that this or that is going to happen, but I can’t. My wish was for us to do our business early, and we certainly tried, but it wasn’t to be.

"It's been a really frustrating summer. We've been very close to signing several players and for different reasons - there's not one theme why we haven't signed more - we've ended up missing out on a few who would have made a difference."

“We’ve had a frustrating time in terms of losing targets to other clubs. I’ll be very open on that – that’s happened on several occasions. But you just have to accept it.

Howe: "The player has to be desperate to come"

“In order for a transfer to really work, in my opinion, the player has to be desperate to come to your club. If we don’t get that, the transfer doesn’t work.

“We’re seeking players that are good enough, that are desperate to come, and that can make the difference. They’re on short supply for us, but we’re confident that we can try to get some more players in to strengthen the depth of the squad. We’re certainly aware that we need to, and we’re trying to do everything we can to do that.”

“I’d say I’m hopeful rather than confident because we’re not in control of the market or agents, players and other clubs. But I can assure everybody we are a 100% on it and trying to do things quickly.”

Howe: "We have to adapt"

“We wanted more (signings in by now). From my perspective, when you’re going into pre-season, you want your squad together from the first day and you want to work on everything you want to work on.

“It’s difficult to do that later on in pre-season because it takes time for our work to feed into the players.

“Whatever happens, happens, and we have to adapt. I’m confident we will try our very best to do it, but I’ve got no guarantees beyond that. We’re working as hard as we can every day to strengthen the squad.”

Howe: "We aren't the biggest payers"

“I’d say the financial side of things plays a huge part, and I’d say that anyone that doesn’t think that is true is deluded.

“I wouldn’t say finance is the number one thing for every player – it would be wrong to put that on each and every player – but we can’t and we aren’t the biggest payers in the league because we don’t generate the most income.

“We have to fall in line with PSR and we have to be very smart with what we do. We have to control the wages of the players that we have, and that all plays a part in who we can attract.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xlV0DIodpU