WHEN Mike Ashley broke his silence to reflect on Newcastle’s frantic battle against relegation at the end of last season, he memorably acknowledged the need to “bolt the horse to the cart”. Three months on, and Florian Thauvin’s arrival in a £12m move from Marseille means the Magpies have completed four thoroughbred acquisitions.

Ashley’s comments in May were met with understandable scepticism, but whatever else he may or may not do over the course of the next few months, Newcastle’s controversial owner deserves credit for finally living up to his promises.

It remains to be seen whether his loosening of the purse strings has the required result, but after a lengthy period of underinvestment, Ashley has finally lived up to his part of the bargain in terms of handing the Magpies the best possible chance of hauling themselves back up the Premier League table.

Even in the days when Alan Shearer and Michael Owen were arriving on Tyneside for record-breaking fees, Newcastle did not exceed their current summer outlay, which stands at around £48m. Inflation has to be factored into that, and there is still a chance that Ashley could recoup some of his money by cashing in on Cheick Tiote, Moussa Sissoko or Papiss Cisse before the transfer window closes.

Remy Cabella’s departure for Marseille will also bring in £6.5m provided the midfielder plays in sufficient matches to trigger the clause that will turn his loan deal into a permanent transfer, but even so, Newcastle can hardly be accused of parsimony this summer.

That said, though, increased investment is no guarantee of success, and Thauvin’s arrival raises a couple of interesting questions that could have a profound impact on how the Magpies perform this season.

First, this week’s events suggest that Newcastle’s senior hierarchy have retained complete faith in both their ability to extract value from France’s Ligue 1, and chief scout Graham Carr’s knack for sourcing the best available talent from the other side of the Channel. Time will tell whether that faith is justified.

If Carr wasn’t a football scout, perhaps he should consider a job with the Canadian Mounted Police because, just like the Mounties, he generally gets his man.

Thauvin’s signature brings a successful resolution to a chase that has been going on for more than two-and-a-half years. Newcastle first wanted to sign the winger in the January 2013 transfer window that saw Sissoko, Mathieu Debuchy, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Yoan Gouffran and Massadio Haidara move to Tyneside from Ligue 1.

Back then, Thauvin was the one that got away, but that is no longer the case after Cabella’s willingness to move to the Stade Velodrome triggered his compatriot’s move in the opposite direction to Tyneside.

Cabella’s story is an instructive one as the former Montpellier midfielder was the last player that Newcastle chased incessantly from one transfer window to the next before eventually striking a deal with his French employers.

His capture last summer was presented as a notable coup; 12 months on, and the Magpies are patting themselves on the back just because they’ve come close to getting their money back on the midfielder.

Will Thauvin be the new Cabella or the new Yohan Cabaye? Carr in particular will be hoping it is the latter as if Thauvin flops, Newcastle will have squandered around £25m on expensive French fancies in the space of two summers following the earlier arrival of Cabella and Emmanuel Riviere.

Scouting reports from France suggest Newcastle’s latest recruit is much more robust than Cabella, and considerably less explosive than Hatem Ben Arfa, another cross-Channel capture who failed to live up to his billing.

He will add some welcome width on the left-hand side, and looks a much better fit in Steve McClaren’s preferred 4-2-3-1 formation than Cabella, a player who looked like a fish out of water on the flank, and who was never going to edge ahead of Georginio Wijnaldum or Siem de Jong in the battle to fill the pivotal ‘number ten’ role.

Yet with Thauvin joining Wijnaldum and Aleksandar Mitrovic on an expensive list of attacking acquisitions, it is hard not to feel that Newcastle’s recruitment team have allowed their priorities to become somewhat unbalanced in the last few weeks.

Anyone who has watched the Magpies in the majority of the last two seasons will know that it is the club’s defence that has provided most cause for concern, and many of the failings that were apparent under both Alan Pardew and John Carver reared their head again in the opening two games of the current campaign.

Chancel Mbemba has arrived from Anderlecht to provide some ballast at centre-half, but he already finds himself at right-back covering for the suspended Daryl Janmaat because there is not another natural player for that position in the squad.

With Mike Williamson having been told to seek alternative employment, Mbemba, Fabricio Coloccini, Steven Taylor and the untried Jamaal Lascelles are Newcastle’s only options at centre-half. Coloccini and Taylor have erred repeatedly throughout their Magpies careers, and on the evidence of Lascelles’ performances for Nottingham Forest last season, the 21-year-old does not look ready for the Premier League.

The situation at left-back is no better, with Massadio Haidara having been regularly undone in the opening-weekend draw with Southampton and Paul Dummett still to fully convince.

Beyond that, the defensive cupboard is bare, and if Newcastle are to end the transfer window in their current state, it will feel somewhat misguided that only one of their signings is a player who can improve the backline.

There is still time for that to change, with Monaco’s sought-after centre-half Aymen Abdennour regarded as a realistic option despite his hefty price tag, but with almost £50m already having been invested, it is hard to imagine Ashley sanctioning too much more spending.

That would potentially leave Newcastle awash with attacking-midfield options, but still short of numbers and quality in the back four.

After the lack of investment in recent transfer windows, it seems churlish to be too critical of this summer’s events. Even so, it would be hard to claim that all of the Magpies’ problems have been successfully rectified despite their record spending.