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Newcastle United will be in the black when the club announce their annual accounts next month.

It will be the third year in a row that Mike Ashley will be celebrating making a profit at St James’ Park.

The balance sheets may be gleaming right now but with players heading out of the club this summer and replacements required, is a reality check around the corner?

The figures will be boosted further by an extra £8m from the club’s four-year sponsorship deal with Wonga – with the revenue picked up for the controversial deal not included in last year’s accounts.

They won’t include the whopping fee of £20m for Yohan Cabaye either.

But while finance director John Irving will no doubt be admiring the balance sheets again in a few weeks’ time, with major adjustments to be made in Alan Pardew’s squad, it could be argued that Newcastle are living in a false economy.

Pardew says that there is a “big summer” ahead of United.

However, the last two transfer windows haven’t yielded a single permanent transfer on Tyneside.

And although saving a few quid here and there may look good on paper, if Newcastle want to simply make sure they survive in the Premier League in the 2014/15 season, they will have to come up with a battle plan just to stay in the race.

United managed to prove a few people wrong last summer by not dipping into the £60m cash-pot provided by the new TV deal in place up and down the land.

The fear was that sides who invested on the field could take over the Magpies.

Yet sides like Swansea City, Hull City, Crystal Palace, Norwich City and Southampton all sit below Newcastle in the table.

That’s thanks chiefly to a borrowed body in Loic Remy from Queens Park Rangers and the now departed Yohan Cabaye who have served up 18 goals between them to bolster that climb to the top eight.

Nobody will be surprised to see Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur ahead of the Magpies.

Although Pardew himself indicated Newcastle should be keeping pace with Liverpool and Everton at the end of last season with the Reds 13 points ahead of United and Everton also showing them a clean pair of heels with an eight-point advantage in sixth.

The only shock is that Manchester United are just four points ahead of the Magpies.

With 13 games to go it will be difficult to see Newcastle failing to finish in the top 10.

Should they manage it, this will trigger a bonus award for Newcastle’s administration and backroom team.

As frustrating as it may sound to fans who feel the Magpies should be aiming higher, sitting pretty in eighth means everything is going to plan as far as Pardew, Mike Ashley and the United board are concerned.

But then what?

Remy is likely to depart in the summer when his loan deal is over, and Luuk de Jong is another scheduled to return to his parent club Borussia Monchengladbach in May.

Shola Ameobi’s contract is also up and he has been tipped to end his 14-year first-team association with United.

Papiss Cisse is another who – as it stands – looks likely to quit St James’ Park after failing to get the first-team football he wants under Pardew.

So that’s potentially four strikers required for the Magpies in the summer and that won’t come cheap.

And that’s without taking into consideration that others might want to leave.

Whether it be due to a lack of ambition, lack of first-team opportunities or because they can command a better deal elsewhere, there are likely to be more departures.

Cheick Tiote has been linked with Manchester United, Hatem Ben Arfa has been in and out of the team, Sylvain Marveaux has made it clear he wants to move if he doesn’t get a game and Jonas Gutierrez is surplus to requirements.

The squad may need some bolstering in the summer.

Alfred Finnbogason of Heerenveen is on Newcastle’s list after bagging 21 goals in the Eredivisie this term, but he could cost at least £8m – the price Celtic were quoted last month. And as we’re talking ball-park figures somebody like Lyon’s Alexandre Lacazette – who has caught the attention of a host of Prem scouts and has featured in conversations among the top-flight’s talent-spotters this year – weighs in at £10m.

In reality, for a club of Newcastle’s stature to sign a player capable of getting the goals to at least keep United at English football’s top table is going to cost the best part of £20m.

Throw in the fact United need a couple of back-up strikers, likely to be younger and less expensive, that bill will come in a little bit higher.

Cabaye must also be replaced, and after Newcastle’s attempts to sign Clement Grenier from Lyon were described as “derisory” by French sources, the Toon’s football dealmaker Lee Charnley will have to up his stake and that could take the deal beyond £8m.

Montpellier’s Remy Cabella would also cost at least £10m, and the Ligue 1 side aren’t exactly easy to deal with, considering president Louis Nicollin has already been rubbed up the wrong way by Newcastle this year.

And considering United weren’t willing to pay £1m in agent fees for Bafetimbi Gomis, things don’t bode well.

Joe Kinnear’s eight-month stint as director of football hasn’t helped anybody – if anything it has taken the club backwards.

Plenty of time was wasted as Kinnear muddled his way through a long list of agents to discuss unrealistic targets, while players already pitched on to United’s shortlist were ignored.

Either way United will need to up their game in the transfer market and up their stakes at the bidding table.

That could mean actually spending some money! Anybody at Chelsea at the weekend witnessed the state of a depleted Newcastle team in need of investment.

Only the £50m it could cost to address that may not be forthcoming from Mr Ashley.

Especially if recent history is anything to go by.