Eddie Howe hits back at Newcastle United transfer claim after £70m talks & PSR admission

The Magpies had been locked in talks with Crystal Palace over Guehi for the best part of a month but are unlikely to sign the defender before tonight’s 11pm after negotiations broke down this week. Palace are understood to want around £70million for Guehi and have taken a much stronger stance centre-back since Chadi Riad picked up a knee injury in their Carabao Cup win against Norwich City on Tuesday.

With the Guehi deal off, unless the Eagles lower their demands, Howe admitted there’s a possibility no new signings arrive on deadline day, although dismissed claims that the England international was the only player United looked at.

"Without going into the individual situation here, we've tried to sign several players,” said Howe. “It's never been about one player. It can never be about one player, because as soon as you're in that position, then your negotiation strength is over.

"So, no, we've tried for several targets, but it still has to be the right player though. And there isn't an unlimited number of players. It's not like you can, well, we'll just go on to the next one, the next one, the next one. Because then the quality dilutes and then you have to question whether you're doing the right thing for the long-term future of the club.

"There isn't a bottomless pit of money. We're not able to spend that way. Everything that we do has a long-term consequence. So you've got to be very sure whatever you do is right for the long-term future and short-term future of the club."

Asked the same question again, Howe replied: “Absolutely, but I'm never going to tell you what they are and you'll understand why that would be the case. It's never about one player, we've tried for numerous players.

“But as I said, there's not a bottomless pit of names and we'll say that at the same time, but it wouldn't be for any other club in our position. There's probably four or five players that you go through and once you get to the end of that, you're then going, is this player of sufficient quality.”

Premier League Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) continues be an issue but Howe confirmed to NewcastleWorld the club were in a position to spend a substantial fee on a player. However, they were only willing to do that for the “right player”.

Howe said: “Yes but it absolutely had to be the right player and of course, the more the window has gone on, the right player becomes very hard to find.

“But you’ve also got to understand with that decision impacts future windows and our PSR situation drastically, so I think then you’ll understand the importance of every decision that we’re making.

“If you’re not absolutely certain on this being the right direction to take, you can’t take it and you’ll have to make that decision another day.”

What is the right player? "The right player is multi-factored, really, he said. “It's the right age, the right deal as in transfer fee, the right wages, then the right player to actually come into your squad, the right positional need.

“There's loads of things. If one of those things is not right, especially financially for us, it puts us in a difficult situation.”