Newcastle spend gets under Dean Smith's skin but Eddie Howe secrets told that can't be bought

Deep down, Eddie Howe never expected to be in this position with four games to go. In fact, the Newcastle United head coach had been bracing himself for the Magpies' relegation battle to go right down to the wire, to potentially a dreaded survival Sunday clash at Burnley on the last day of the season.

However, Newcastle are now riding high in ninth place following a 3-0 win against Norwich City at Carrow Road on Saturday. The black-and-whites have won 10 of their last 14 games and only Man City, Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal have picked up more points since Howe took charge last November. To put that turnaround into perspective, no other side had ever survived the drop after failing to win any of their opening 14 Premier League games.

Of course, it is important to stress that Newcastle certainly made full use of a mid-season lifeline available to them in the January transfer window. No other club in world football ultimately spent a greater amount in the new owners' first window in charge as more than £93m was splashed out on Kieran Trippier, Chris Wood, Bruno Guimaraes, Matt Targett (loan) and Dan Burn.

After seeing Bruno embarrass his goalkeeper, Tim Krul, perhaps it was not a surprise that Norwich boss Dean Smith pointed out that Newcastle are 'pretty much owned by a country so they're always going to improve'. Given how Smith has been unable to make a signing at Norwich yet - in contrast to the large sums he spent at Villa - that comment felt a little pointed after the 51-year-old had hailed Howe as an 'unbelievable coach' just seconds earlier.

Yes, Newcastle spent big but the Magpies a lot of catching up to do after bringing in just one player, Joe Willock, in Mike Ashley's final two windows in charge. Also, there