The month of May has barely started but by the time Eddie Howe and his coaching staff settled down on Wednesday night to take in Manchester City's Champions League clash against Real Madrid to continue their work on the third last game of the season, the tally of transfer links for the day had hit double figures.
It's usually June when speculation begins to bubble over on the transfer front but it was always going to start earlier for Newcastle this year. Just like January, there are football clubs, agents, representatives and players themselves that know United will be in the market to add to their existing squad.
On the ground, in Newcastle the usual anxiety and panic that comes with transfer windows has disappeared. Season tickets have been renewed quickly and the wait for the release of new seats is eagerly awaited. There is trust in the new regime and bags of support for the head coach and his backroom team.
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The word from the top is that the magic we've seen on the field in 2022, after rising from the bottom of the table into the top 10, is: "Only just the start." Howe has already declared that there won't be "wholesale changes" to his Toon squad but with 32 senior players potentially returning in early July, he also admitted that there will be some movement. A host of free transfer options will certainly come the way of Newcastle.
The first being a player that Howe confirmed his interest in way back in January in Jesse Lingard. Lingard isn't hanging around at Manchester United with his contract now over.
With no transfer fee applicable for Lingard any possible move will boil down to wages. Already on £100,000 per week at Man United, at 29, he will want the best deal of his career and it could spark a salary bidding war between Newcastle, AC Milan and West Ham.
Clarification on the futures of some of the players Newcastle already have is also key with contract offers for Sean Longstaff and Paul Dummett yet to be confirmed or resolved by United. True, their roles are very much as squad players moving forward but we are also talking about two precious places in the roster.
As far as spending power is concerned, Newcastle will be restricted by financial fair play rules in any case. But the word from the top, via Amanda Staveley, has been that "silly money" won't come into it.
In other words, if Newcastle feel they are being taken for a ride they will swiftly move on to the next target. What the club's transfer frontline will look like this summer is also going to be interesting.
Howe, head of recruitment Steve Nickson, Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi and existing staff from the Mike Ashley era guided Newcastle through last January and in fairness did a great job with £90million spent on players, including Bruno Guimaraes and Kieran Trippier, that have helped the club stay up.
With a CEO still to be confirmed and the continued wait for Dan Ashworth still to come though there is still scope for a different look. But either way, the work of Nickson and his scouts and Howe and his backroom team is already well under way in terms of a shortlist of targets.
A gruelling summer of going through the genuine links to those potentially using Newcastle's name to generate publicity awaits, but by the time pre-season gets under way, United's squad is likely to have new faces on board.
