How Newcastle United’s January transfer business compares to their Premier League relegation rivals

The Magpies had a number of positions they had hoped to strengthen in and have done a good job of meeting their goals for the transfer window.

The Tyneside club were in need of some clever signings as they look to avoid relegation this season and managed to massively improve on their current squad.

The arrivals of Dan Burn, Matt Targett and Kieran Trippier should put an end to their leaky defence, while Bruno Guimaraes certainly gives them hope for the future if they can stay up.

One negative from their window, however, is their failure to land Jesse Lingard or Huge Etikite on deadline day.

Finally, Chris Wood has proved with Burnley that he can guarantee you the goals needed to remain in the Premier League.

Here is how Newcastle’s January business compared to the other Premier League strugglers...

Burnley

Burnley’s main mission was to bring in a direct replacement for Chris Wood.

While he has no Premier League experience, Wout Weghorst scored 20 league goals for Wolfsburg last season and certainly knows where the goal is.

However, the Clarets were already struggling for an attacking threat before Wood’s departure and could have done with another winger or attacking midfielder to provide the creativity alongside Maxwel Cornet.

Norwich

Despite moving out of the bottom three, Norwich City needed huge improvements to their squad in order to avoid relegation and have completely failed to do so.

Like Burnley, Norwich needed speed and skill, but also needed defensive reinforcements to improve on their -32 goal difference.

The Canaries made no signings during the transfer window and instead saw the likes of Todd Cantwell depart.

Watford

Watford needed to add quality all over their pitch in order to improve the team and went onto make seven signings.

However, none of January’s arrivals have any Premier League experience.

With the exception of Emmanuel Dennis; the Hornet’s strategy of bringing in unknown foreign players hasn’t worked for them so far this season and so doesn’t make much sense to continue.

Everton

Everton have enjoyed a promising transfer window and have also brought in Frank Lampard to replace Rafa Benitez at the helm.

The Toffees were in need of improvements at full-back and in various attacking positions.

Benitez was quick to bolster their defence - bringing in Vitaliy Mykolenko and Nathan Patterson - and also added Aston Villa winger, Anwar El Ghazi.

Perhaps the more exciting signings came on transfer deadline day, as Lampard made Donny van de Beek and Dele Alli his first two signings as manager.

The Merseyside club are most definitely Newcastle’s biggest challengers in the fight for survival, with both teams making securing some impressive transfers.