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For Newcastle United , this is shaping up to be the biggest and deepest overhaul of playing personnel for nearly 20 years.

Think back to 1992/3, when Kevin Keegan started consolidating the momentum generated by his arrival with bona fide game-changing arrivals like Peter Beardsley and Andy Cole. Or the mid-nineties, when the process of ruthless cutting of squad members was justified by bringing in the likes of David Ginola, Alan Shearer and Les Ferdinand.

More recently, the board see paralells in what happened in 2010. Newcastle used money generated by Andy Carroll’s departure to re-shape the landscape completely – selling Kevin Nolan and Joey Barton to bring in Demba Ba and Yohan Cabaye. It was the first shots of a quiet revolution.

There is nothing quiet about this summer’s revolution. Rafa Benitez promised changes and affirmative action and that is what is being delivered.

Solid, Championship signings are arriving quickly but just as crucially, three of their longest servers have now gone. Fabricio Coloccini, Papiss Cisse and Steven Taylor needed to go – others who have added to the climate of fatalism that Steve McClaren struggled with will follow.

Almost as incredibly, the club are replacing them quickly and sensibly. You can see the logic of Benitez’s every move: there is faith in his judgement.

For those of us who sat in the Newcastle United boardroom a few years ago to be told – quite bluntly – that the club knew it might never win over a sizeable section of its support, the last three months have felt quite extraordinary.

The depth of discontent felt by many United fans was acknowledged in the boardroom by Derek Llambias. The feeling was no doubt shared by Lee Charnley, who hoped that Newcastle’s approach would be cuter and smarter than their rivals: unpopular, perhaps, in the short-term but borne out in the end.

The idea that Newcastle had been too prone to emotional, knee-jerk decisions in the past was behind much of the logic of the last few years but it perhaps veered too far in the other direction. The refreshing thing about the close season so far is seeing everyone with the club’s interests at heart essentially singing from the same hymn sheet.

Benitez arrived at Newcastle perhaps three weeks too late to save the club from relegation. United should have made the change after Chelsea but Charnley took the temperature of influential figures, listened to the dressing room, took counsel from the man himself and surmised that Steve McClaren could still be capable of saving Newcastle.

His judgement was flawed but it has been better this summer. The often overly political and complicated power-lines at Newcastle have been stripped back and simplified: Benitez’s calls are the ones that matter now.

That means Graham Carr is now answerable to Benitez. Charnley also takes Benitez’s counsel on signings. That is a massive change from last summer when the recruitment drive was the work of those two men. A reconfigured board – one of the little details yet to be revealed – will be confirmed and announced when the guts of the recruitment drive have been concluded.

What Benitez is doing now is using the power afforded to him to do nothing less than re-shape the entire playing staff in his own image.

The first requirement in his negotiations was to be able to build a squad good enough to blow away the division. No ifs, no buts and no excuses: Benitez wanted a sensible level of resource to be able to redress the imbalances in the squad and make the group big enough and good enough to cope with any of the challenges thrown at him.

Doubts over Tim Krul’s fitness and – perhaps – Karl Darlow’s aerial presence have led to Matz Sels arriving. It looks unforgiving for the outsider but Benitez sensed too much complacency among many of the squad.

Benitez also wants to bring in others: another striker to replace Papiss Cisse, a midfielder in Isaac Hayden but he’d also like a left-back and quite possibly another midfielder. There has been talk of building a squad that would enable the club to field two XIs that could win the division.

It also meant beefing up the defence – literally and metaphorically – and explains why the club have signed their first over-30 for six years. It also gives you an explanation for why Grant Hanley – big and strong but hardly a like-for-like replacement for the nimble Fabricio Coloccini – is one of his targets.

United’s attitude is this: they have the best manager, the largest support, the biggest wage bill and – by the time they’re finished – the best squad by a distance. If those things don’t lead to the title and promotion, it will be extraordinary.

Just as crucially, big earners with big reputations who weren’t delivering are leaving. Cisse and Coloccini are still more than good enough for a crack at the second tier but in truth they lacked the heart for a crack at the Championship.

Benitez is assessing which others are not conduicive to the professional, upbeat atmosphere he wants to create. There will be other departures and it may be that by the time they kick off next season, Paul Dummett will be the club’s longest serving player.

Benitez still has big issues to sort. Moussa Sissoko’s determination to leave will test his mettle, but he’s coped with worse. Decisions on the captaincy and the number nine shirt are symbolically important.

Then there is the future to think about. What United might have done if they were a Premier League club doesn’t bear thinking about: they will need a similar brutal and ambitious recruitment drive next summer if they go up.

But first things first – the transformation of Newcastle United is underway. It feels like an exciting time to be at St James’ Park.