Have we been here before?

Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias failed to replace Andy Carroll despite having seven months to do so

Yet another transfer deadline day and yet another major disappointment for Newcastle United.

Just seven months after fans saw star striker Andy Carroll flogged to Liverpool, the familiar sense of emptiness has returned after the club failed to replace him.

In May, manager Alan Pardew bemoaned his side's lack of "je ne sais quoi" in the box, but he must now continue with the same set of strikers (plus free signing Demba Ba) until at least January.

There are many questions which need answering and Pardew is not the man who should have to field them.

Derek Llambias is to answer fans' questions in the near future and that is a slight step forward. It is certainly better than what supporters have been used to, a wall of silence from the club.

However, the fact the questions will be seen by Llambias in advance ensures the club's PR department will have plenty of time to think of responses and fans will not be sure about whether the answers are really Llambias'.

Llambias and owner Mike Ashley don't seem to care what people think of them but they have a duty to keep supporters informed. Hopefully in the future the club will sit down regularly with reporters and fan groups to explain decisions.

They need to answer many questions, the most potent of which being:

• What has happened to the £45million from the sales of Andy Carroll, Kevin Nolan and Jose Enrique?
• Why has the club failed to replace Andy Carroll despite their financial clout and the seven months they had to bring in a striker?
• Why has the club spent just a net £600,000 in this transfer window?
• How much say does Alan Pardew have in the transfer policy?

The promise the club gave that Carroll would be replaced has joined a growing list of broken promises and the farce of transfer deadline day did nobody any favours.

There are 35 million reasons a replacement for Carroll should have been found

Deja vu is probably the best way to describe it.

On deadline day in January 2009, Newcastle launched a bid for Sunderland's Kieran Richardson although it was clear to everybody they had no chance of landing him.

Fast-forward to January 2011, in the immediate aftermath of Carroll's sale, and the club made a bid for Wigan's Charles N'Zogbia with a matter of minutes remaining before the deadline.

This time, it was failed bids for Bryan Ruiz and Liam Ridgewell, but it begs the question: were these genuine attempts to bring in players or attempts to appease fans?

In Ruiz's case, it appeared impossible, just as in the past bids for Richardson and N'Zogbia, for Newcastle to land him.

The deadline day bid for Ruiz was destined to fail

He had all but agreed to join Fulham and Newcastle's fans are not fools. They knew the club were never going to get him.

In a statement released on the club's website, Llambias claimed the club would "not make knee-jerk decisions at the last minute", so if that was the case, what would he describe the bids for Ridgewell and particularly Ruiz as?

There shouldn't have been any need for knee-jerk decisions anyway. The club had seven months to secure a replacement for Carroll and that player should have been in place early in the summer.

Now Pardew will have to make do with Ba, Shola Ameobi, Leon Best and Peter Lovenkrands and that is not a list of names to strike fear into Premier League defences.

Pardew must feel desperately let down by his board

Have any of those four got a chance of scoring 20 goals a season? Absolutely not. All four are good back-up or perhaps secondary strikers, but none of them will ignite the fanbase and terrorise defences.

The club desperately needed a number nine figure but they will now have to wait until at least January to sign one.

And who's to say they will actually sign one then? It seemed an inevitability they would sign one in the summer window, so it's no guarantee they will deliver on their promise in January either.

Pardew has actually overseen a fantastic start to the season, with seven points from three games, but those results have simply papered over the cracks in the short-term.

Over the coming months, Newcastle's threadbare squad will be stretched to the limit and it will be a miracle if Pardew and his players can hold onto a place in the top half.

The squad includes some very accomplished players but is at least three players light.

After the injury to Mike Williamson, there is seemingly no back-up for the central defenders. The departures of Kevin Nolan and Joey Barton ensures the Magpies will lack leaders on the pitch and, in the case of Nolan, goals from midfield. The failure to replace Carroll means Newcastle will find goals extremely hard to come by.

There have been some tremendous signings in this transfer window and that is why it is such a travesty the club didn't land the one or two players they really needed.

Yohan Cabaye looks a class act in the centre of the park, Davide Santon arrives with a glowing reputation from Italy, Demba Ba has failed to hit the ground running but showed good signs last season at West Ham, Sylvain Marveaux is lacking fitness but offers depth on the wing, Gabriel Obertan looks a potentially explosive player and Mehdi Abeid appears to have bags of potential.

Cabaye currently looks the most impressive of Newcastle's summer recruits

There is real hope there for supporters but the failure to secure another striker may just come back to haunt those in the St James' Park corridors of power.

Newcastle's top two scorers from last season have now left the club and it looks doubtful there is anyone in the current squad ready to step up to the plate.

Fans are beginning to vote with their feet, as the 10,000 empty seats at the Fulham game proved.

If Newcastle continue to win games, those fans will come back, but the club cannot afford any more transfer window farces.

There needs to be a consistent line of communication from club to fans from now on and those in power need to be willing to answer the difficult questions, the ones the fans want answered.

On the face of it, there should be money to spend in January but do the club intend to spend any money? Will they just tell Alan Pardew to make do with what he has?

There are an infinite number of questions and precious little answers so now is the time to talk.

Llambias can't shirk the difficult questions; he can't hide behind a PR man.

Fans have and will continue to shell out their hard-earned money on their club and they have a right to know the truth, whether they will like what they hear or not.

Over to you, Derek.