Steve McClaren expects players to leave Necastle United

The club is looking to recruit as many as half a dozen players.

But McClaren has conceded that there will be departures, with question marks over the futures of the likes of Cheick Tiote, Moussa Sissoko and Papiss Demba Cisse.

Remy Cabella, signed a year ago, has also been linked with a loan move to France.

Head coach McClaren, appointed last month, is hopeful of further progress this week after last week’s £14.5million acquisition of midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum from PSV Eindhoven.

However, the “plan” is also for one or more outgoings as a squad, which was found wanting last season, is rebalanced and rebuilt to challenge for a domestic cup on the orders of owner Mike Ashley.

Asked about the prospect of outgoings, McClaren said: “There’s always been a plan in place, always.

“Whether I was here or anybody else, there was a plan.

“I’ve seen that plan and probably adjusted it a little bit, but more or less stuck to the plan.

“We can all sit down and know what the plan is. It’s a good plan. You can’t keep everybody.

“I always say ‘we’re in here, and eventually we’ll go out of there’.

“But while we’re here, we’ll work damn hard for the football club.

“That’s the case with staff, players – everybody.”

Cabella has been linked with a loan to Olympique Marseille.

Then-manager Alan Pardew admitted Tiote had become “unsettled” at Newcastle last summer amid interest from Locomotiv Moscow.

And Moussa Sissoko, another of the club’s midfielders, has given mixed messages on his future over the past seven months.

And Cisse’s future could lie away from St James’s Park, though the striker said on Twitter that he remained “proud” to wear the No 9 jersey at the club.

as a makeweight in a proposed move for Florian Thauvin.

Cabella missed the club’s tour of the USA with an injury suffered in training.