Newcastle United will do what's necessary in the transfer market to make 'significant strides' next season, Sky Sports journalist Keith Downie says.

The lowdown

Newcastle have lifted themselves away from relegation trouble with a run of 20 points from their last ten Premier League matches.

They've now climbed up to 14th place in the table, nine points clear of the drop zone ahead of the run-in.

That means they can afford to look up rather than down in this final stretch of games.

Newcastle's new owners shelled out nearly £90million on five new signings in January, the largest winter spend from a single club in Premier League history.

The latest

Downie says a strong finish to the season would reduce the pressure on Newcastle 'to go mad'.

But he still expects a 'big' spend in order to take the team to the next level.

"If the team does really well towards the end of the season, there's not the need to go mad, but they will want to make significant strides in that first season, I think," he told GiveMeSport.

"So, that's why I expect them to spend big in the summer."

The verdict

How much will Eddie Howe and Newcastle's recruitment team have at their disposal this summer?

Well, The Telegraph's Luke Edwards says it's difficult to pinpoint an exact figure, but he's 'been told' that it will be 'less' than the sum they spent in January.

He adds, though, that they can inflate that budget through player sales, and that they can bring players through free transfers and loan deals as well.

And it's worth stressing that a spend of, say, £80million, would still be fairly sizeable. That would have ranked Newcastle sixth in last summer's spending table, for instance.

A reasonable goal would be to banish any relegation fears and finish in the league's top ten next season.

In other news, a source has made this admission about the relationship between Howe & Saint-Maximin.