STEVE MCCLAREN believes the pursuit for Saido Berahino is a sign of progress at Newcastle.
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| McClaren claims Newcastle's £24m bid shows ambition |
The Magpies made three bids for the unsettled West Brom striker with the last reportedly up to £24million but chairman Jeremy Peace rejected all three.
But Newcastle were one of the busiest clubs, signing Andros Townsend, Jonjo Shelvey, Henri Saivet and Seydou Doumbia.
And despite losing out on England Under-21 international Berahino, McClaren claims his club have still done well in January.
"I think that [getting Berahino] would have been a bonus," McClaren said.
"It shows the ambition of the club.
“We’ve made four very good signings.
“Lee Charnley and I talked about it yesterday and said if you’d predicted we’d sign the likes of Townsend and Shelvey, two top quality, young players, England internationals by the end of the window, we’d have said you were crazy.
“But we got them, added Henri and brought in Doumbia on loan at the death - he’s got experience of Champions League football.
"He’s a goalscorer so I am absolutely delighted with what we have done.
“It shows the ambition of the board and the club. That’s what we set out to do from the beginning and we have carried it out.
“We kept very quiet about our business and gone about it quietly but I think we’ve got very, very good recruitment.
“It shows a statement of intent about what we want to do.”
Newcastle are still in the relegation zone, two points off safety with fifteen games left in the Premier League season.
And having scored just 25 goals in the league so far, frontmen were a priority.
But does McClaren believe he has enough firepower to stay up?
“Yes, without a doubt," the manager added.
“What we’ve got in is enough to see us through and score goals.”
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