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Mike Ashley and Lee Charnley have at long last admitted Newcastle United’s transfer policy has failed and have promised to make up for their past mistakes.

Head coach John Carver revealed he has spoken recently to both owner and managing director who conceded to him that the squad is not strong enough, something that should have been sorted out long before now.

Carver has only 13 fit senior players for Saturday’s visit to Arsenal and many of those missing won’t play again until next season.

It will take more than words for the Newcastle supporters to believe that there will be any great change in policy however the more optimistic will hope that this admission is at least a step in the right direction.

When it was put to Carver that it was not good enough for Newcastle United to go into any game with such a small number of players to choose from, the head coach agreed.

Carver said: “Yes, the squad needs to be stronger and they have acknowledged that to me. Lee (Charnley) and the board have acknowledged that to me, and that’s why I am saying to you now they are going to invest, because they know they have to.

“I am telling you now, because I have been part of it in the last few weeks, there are things in place. That’s from the top, and the fact that I am sitting here now telling you this is a fact.

“That fact that I’m sitting here talking about this acknowledgement tells me that they have realised. They’ve got to do something about it and they know that.”

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And he then added: “It’s a difficult situation. I’ve spoken to Lee who has obviously spoken to Mike, and they acknowledge the fact that we’re a little bit short at the back and particularly at centre back. There’s a process in place, I’ve been involved in that process for a few weeks now, there’s big meeting in place in the next couple of weeks with Lee Charnley and Graham Carr to talk about the future, and to talk about investment.

“I’ve seen who we are looking at and without going into detail there’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes. This football club will invest in the summer, because it needs it.”

Carver agreed that the club hierarchy had learned their lesson and that they admitted that signing nobody in January, especially cover in defence, was a huge error of judgement.

Asked for the explanation to this policy. Carver said: “I can’t go into the details of that, can I, because for most of that time, I was the assistant. Pards was here, so I wasn’t part of the process then, really, to be honest.

“What I have to say is, take all those injuries away and we have got 26 professionals. Now that is a decent-sized squad and under normal circumstances, that’s not a problem with three or four injuries. Five or six is pushing it, but not as many as that.

“Long-term, that’s what has killed us, so even if we had brought in two or three players, we would have had to get rid of two or three players to keep the size of your squad together.”

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No matter what you think of Carver in terms of whether he should have been given the job on a short-term basis or not, he has been left something of a raw deal.

He is paying the price for the club failing to strengthen in January and last summer as well.

Carver said: “The fact that Lee and Mike have acknowledged that doesn’t make me feel better, but at least the people understand out there that that’s what has happened.

“Now whether it was me or Pards, if he was still here, or whoever was here, that would be the same situation.”

Carver will speak again with Charnley and chief scout Graham Carr over the next few weeks about signings.

He said: “I’m excited by the fact that I’ve been part of the process. That’s the first thing. I’ve seen the players (suggested) and they’re good players.”