If you skate on thin ice then it ought to be no surprise should you occasionally fall through and take a dousing. When the tide begins to run against a team during the course of 90 minutes as it easily can over a long season and you have no game-changers on the bench when looking for inspiration then the obvious looms.

For transfer window after transfer window Geordies have been told that Newcastle United are football's Houdini tied in chains by the restrictions of financial fair play. Therefore where is the surprise in defeat? Disappointment, yes, frustration certainly but surprise?

We used to call St James Park a fortress but this season Newcastle have lost at home to Brighton, West Ham, Bournemouth and Fulham. Not a roll call of the elite. Not Champions League opposition. Merely decent Premier League sides capable of enjoying the occasional day in the sun.

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Now we must face Arsenal for a place at Wembley from a position of having lost successive home matches. Two goals scored six conceded. Confidence pricked. Hope has inevitably been regularly dangled before passionate support with the supposedly reassuring suggestion that the next transfer window will be different. Only it never is, at least not so far. In the meantime United remain tantalisingly close to tangible success - Champions League qualification and a Wembley cup final - but true glory remains a mirage on the horizon.

The truth of the matter is that United's starting line up looks good on paper when all are fit and firing but the back up is as flimsy as a lace curtain on the washing line in a gale. A lack of competition for places can also erode potential. There is no one pushing a player to perform.

United have numerically been reduced even further attack wise with the transfer of Miggy Almiron leaving United's nine man bench against Fulham showing one striker Will Osula, a young pup, and no wingers backed in terms of offence only by midfielders like Joe Willock and Lewis Miley. Not enough powder to blow your hat off. Eddie Howe knows it, the fans know it, and presumably those who hold the purse strings know it but we're told it has to be accepted as a consequence of a cruel PL law.

If we are keeping the war chest relatively full for a summer plunge then that is a mighty gamble given a failure to secure Champions League this season coupled with winning neither the Carabao Cup nor FA Cup, a risk we're running, would mean we would have a greater chance of losing top quality players like Alexander Isak, Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes than we would of attracting others of their pedigree to a barren landscape.

Just to make it crystal clear let me stress I have not changed my stance one iota. I have praised the team to the heights during their recent startling run of victories while at the same time wailing about the risk run by a paper thin back up. Now it could cost us. Imagine a significant injury say on Wednesday night to Isak, Gordon or Tonali. It doesn't bear dwelling upon. What then with another transfer window of inactivity closed?

United have absolutely no cover at outside-right, centre-forward or outside-left when goals win matches. It is like this not through bad luck but risk taking. Now that gamble has increased with the news that Joelinton has to be assessed for a knee injury before Arsenal hit town. As for Callum Wilson and a possible return, dare we rely on a player who hasn't made a single start so far this season and we are now into February. If that is the life we have to permanently live then so be it but a public explanation from those in charge above Eddie Howe would be nice. Geordies can be understanding when a case is put before them. Ignore them and rumblings gather momentum.

I recall how when the Entertainers were on a roll United risked the wrath of their fans by selling No 9 hero Andy Cole who had just scored 41 goals in an incredible season. That action was dynamite but United met the situation head on. Kevin Keegan emerged on to the steps outside SJP to explain his actions to disgruntled fans while chairman John Hall got off a train from London to go straight to United's training ground and likewise front up supporters to explain the thinking behind such a shock decision. "Trust me," said Keegan and they did. He bought them Les Ferdinand and then Alan Shearer.

Today's faithful love Eddie and are grateful to those who took over and breathed life back into a club squeezed dry by Mike Ashley. It is just so frustrating when first Aston Villa and then Nottingham Forest challenge United's new standing, catch up, and threaten to permanently overtake us despite financial restrictions. We know the party line about inactivity but it is up to the party to find a way round it. That is their job.

It is intriguing what Villa have done. They have taken the bull by the horns selling their best player Douglas Luiz plus Moussa Diaby in the last transfer window and their ace goalscorer Jhon Duran in this all for huge money to give them wiggle room to reinvest widely across the board. I'm sure United fans like myself would be unhappy to see blue chip players sold off but it is a train of thought. Gamble or belt and braces? Do something or do nothing?