Keith Downie now says that the PIF are in town today after shocking summer

The summer transfer window closed on Friday night and with it we had hoped that it would close the book on Newcastle United's nightmare summer but it seems there may still be another twist in the tale yet.

As far as summers go I can't remember one more disruptive than this one. We got rejected by a potential Dan Ashworth replacement - while that negotiation rumbled on in the background - lost two high-profile board members, hired a sporting director who immediately seemed to unsettle the gaffer, sold two promising stars to satisfy PSR while unsettling one of our biggest players by offering him to his boyhood club.

Then on top of all that the new sporting director failed to do his job and Newcastle go into the new season arguably weaker than they were last season.

We'd hoped that the closing of the window would be a line in the sand that we could just move on from all the nightmares that had gone before, but now Keith Downie has given us something else to ponder.

The PIF delegation are at St James' Park to show support

As Newcastle get ready to host Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League this afternoon, Downie has revealed that key members of the PIF are in town.

"Members of PIF, including Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Asma Rezeeq and Jacobo Solis will be in attendance at St. James Park today.

"Understand #NUFC Chairman Al-Rumayyan has been keen to express his support to everyone at the club in person. This follows a difficult couple of months for the club, after the departure of Amanda Staveley & failure to add transfer targets."

Darren Eales could be in for a bad day

They may well just be here to try and smooth things over as Downie suggests, but questions need answering after a summer where nothing has really gone right for the club.

We suspect - based on absolutely nothing but gut feelings and common sense - that it may well not be as friendly a visit as Downie has painted it.

Darren Eales could be in for a very difficult afternoon, especially if Newcastle fail to get a result against Spurs.