Newcastle United’s window descended into farce on deadline day as the club spent the final 24 hours briefing that their transfer business was done while simultaneously negotiating with Leicester City over a loan deal for Hamza Choudhury and pursuing France Under-21 international Boubacar Kamara.

In a day of claims and counterclaim, the move for Choudhury appeared to have collapsed in the morning over the size of the loan fee being demanded for the midfielder.
But the deal was revived within hours with more talks between the two clubs taking place well into the evening. Newcastle also tried to reignite their interest in Marseille defender Kamara, but he was reportedly reluctant to join a struggling Premier League club.

As a result, manager Steve Bruce will be left angry and frustrated by the lack of backing he has received from owner Mike Ashley after talks with Leicester finally broke down two hours before the 11pm deadline.
Where this leaves Bruce remains to be seen. He had wanted at least four new signings this summer but has had to make do with one, with Joe Willock’s loan move from Arsenal turned into a permanent deal.

That means Newcastle are the only club in the top flight who have not improved their squad since May and will further demoralise supporters who have seen their side fail to win in four attempts so far this season.
There have been calls from supporters for Bruce to resign in protest at his shoddy treatment, although this is unlikely to happen. Bruce feels he would be betraying the trust of both players and staff if he were to quit now and feels the club need him to keep them out of relegation trouble - as he has done for the last two years.

Quite why the Choudhury deal could not be done has mystified staff at St James’ Park. The player was keen to join and was pushing for the move to go through as late as Tuesday afternoon.
But Newcastle appear to have refused to pay the loan fee and a percentage of his wages even though they have reduced the wage bill from last season by around £200,000-a-week by cutting players who were not in the 25-man squad last season.

Whether this a sign of an impending sale by Ashley, who is continuing to pursue an arbitration case against the Premier League for failing to pass a takeover led by a Saudi Arabian led consortium, may be wishful thinking, but it will be something fans pine for after another miserable summer transfer window exposed his chronic lack of ambition.