Eddie Howe has admitted that Newcastle United have not been the 'beneficiary' of many bids from the Saudi Pro League.

A number of Newcastle's rivals expressed concern to the Premier League after Al-Ahli signed Allan Saint-Maximin from the Magpies a year-and-a-half ago. However, the £25m deal was deemed to be of fair market value, as per the rules introduced in the aftermath of Newcastle's takeover, and evidence was found of players of a similar age, position, ability and CV moving for such amounts outside the Premier League.

A proposal to block-party related loan deals failed a few months later, which was widely portrayed as a result for Newcastle, but the Saint-Maximin transfer has proved the only piece of business the black-and-whites have carried out with another PIF-owned club. In fact, it has been other top-flight sides who have profited from lucrative sales to Saudi in a PSR world. Has that made Howe smile wryly?

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"I'm not sure that smile is the right word!" the Newcastle boss told reporters. "I've looked on with interest with the Saudi league because, initially, there was a huge outlay of transfer fees and wages for players from England.

"That seemed to really settle down last summer. There was minimal activity. There were a few, but minimal compared to the summer before and now there are selective players who are moving there. It's interesting to see how that league develops, but we haven't been the beneficiary of many bids yet."

So who has? Well, Al-Ahli signed Ivan Toney from Brentford for £40m, Riyad Mahrez from Manchester City for £35m and Edouard Mendy from Chelsea for £16m; Al-Hilal recruited Aleksandar Mitrovic from Fulham for £50m, Ruben Neves from Wolves for £47m, Joao Cancelo from Manchester City for £21m and Kalidou Koulibaly from Chelsea for £17m; Al-Ittihad coughed up £50.6m to land Moussa Diaby from Aston Villa; and Al-Nassr bought Aymeric Laporte for £23.6m from Manchester City and Angelo Gabriel from Chelsea for £19.1m.

Al-Nassr are now closing in on a £63m deal for Aston Villa striker Jhon Duran while the PIF-owned club had a £54m bid rejected for Brighton star Kaoru Mitoma this week. These internationals fit the profile that the Saudi Pro League have been targeting as officials look to increase the exposure of the league across the globe.

While Newcastle do not exactly have a plethora of fringe players who would fit that description, the Magpies have to find a way to become better traders after narrowly escaping a PSR breach last summer. CEO Darren Eales acknowledged that Newcastle had 'not done a very good job at trading players' in the last decade or so and the black-and-whites averaged just £12m profit on disposal in the previous three-year PSR cycle i.e. before last summer. Newcastle admittedly started from a lower base, as a relegation threatened-side, but the average of the so-called top six at the time was £156m and even the other 13 clubs generated more than £60m.

Newcastle, as a result, had to dash to raise funds by selling Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh before the end of the financial year to avoid a potential points deduction last summer while Miguel Almiron has since completed a return to Atlanta United, which, again, was a sale the club 'needed to do'. Newcastle's PSR position is such that the black-and-whites are now going to have to look internally for a replacement for Almiron for the second half of the campaign.

"We will look at a few different options," Howe added. "Joelinton has played wide for us this season. Will Osula could possibly [play there]. We'll have a look at that.

"I don't think we have a huge queue of players that naturally wouldn't necessarily excel playing on the right, but we will have to find a solution, of course. We need support for Jacob [Murphy] - he's not going to be able to play every minute of every game - and we also need to push him. We will look at the academy and see if there's anyone there who deserves an opportunity. We will look at all options."