This was the challenge set for a consortium that lacked crucial football expertise and experience, a problem exacerbated by the inability to appoint a sporting director or a chief executive before the window opened.

It was their first real test since the takeover went through in October last year and a daunting one that, had they failed, would have made the disaster of relegation ever more likely.

Nothing is ever easy in January. It is not the time of year to find a bargain in football and the best run clubs rarely do any major business in the middle of the season. It is a time of year for panic buys and overpriced players, but that is the market place Newcastle’s owners, supported by Howe and chief scout Steve Nickson, were forced to operate in.

They had to give Howe better players to work with; more options and more variety. Newcastle’s squad was too weak to avoid another relegation battle at the end of August but things had gone far worse than imagined, first under Steve Bruce and then under Howe, who has won just two of his 11 games in charge.

It has not been perfect. Then again it was never going to be in January, with a new board in control and a team embroiled in a relegation fight. Players and agents are inevitably wary of committing to a club that might be playing in the Championship next season if things do not go to plan.

There were public pursuits of Lille’s Sven Botman and Seville’s Diego Carlos that consumed a lot of time and energy, but ended in failure. As did a lengthy and frustrating attempt to persuade Manchester United to allow Jesse Lingard to join them on loan.

The fact Manchester United felt they could demand a loan fee that would have totalled £16.5m if they had stayed in the Premier League evidence of the sort of attitude they encountered from selling clubs all too aware of the wealth of their Saudi owners.