Kevin Keegan is seeking “four quality players” to bolster his paper-thin resources at St James’ Park. The Newcastle United manager, whose team beat Hartlepool United 4-1 in their first preseason match on Saturday, has made only two signings - Jonás Gutiérrez and Danny Guthrie - this summer and has conceded that there is much work to do. “You just cannot go into a season with the small squad we’ve got,” Keegan said.

With the club’s new recruitment department a novelty, teething trouble is unavoidable, particularly in a restrictive financial climate, and they have experienced some high-profile disappointments. Of their publicly confirmed targets, Jonathan Woodgate rejected Newcastle for Tottenham Hotspur in January and Luka Modric more recently did the same.

Approaches have also been made for Arda Turan, Bafétimbi Gomis, Pablo Aimar, Anton Ferdinand and Stephen Warnock, without success. Mike Ashley, the owner, wants Newcastle to move away from stellar names and inflated wages in favour of youthful, hungry players with sell-on value, but without being able to offer European football or high salaries, imagination is required.

In an ideal world, Keegan said he would sign “about 20” players, but his priorities are a left back – after having one £3 million bid for Warnock rejected, Newcastle will renew contact with Blackburn Rovers – two centre halves and a creative midfield player.

“We haven’t got competition everywhere, we need to address that and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Keegan said. “We might not have been so successful in the market, but there’s a long time to go and plenty of opportunities. If the right player comes up, we’ll be there pitching. We’d like about four quality players in the right positions. Everyone’s working hard.”

Having lost six players since the end of last season, Keegan was able to take only 12 senior professionals to Victoria Park. Gutiérrez is awaiting his registration, while Michael Owen has been nursing a calf strain. The England striker is expected to resume training today. “There’s definitely got to be some more signings in the pipeline,” Keegan said.

Damien Duff has endured an injury-ridden two years at Newcastle during which he has put his house up for sale and been linked with West Ham United, but the Ireland winger scored a fine hat-trick against Hartlepool after the home team had taken the lead. Afterwards, Keegan spoke of his desire to keep the 29-year-old.

“I’ve absolutely no doubt that Damien is going to be in the best shape of his Newcastle career,” he said. “The lad hasn’t had a proper preseason in three years, but he’s at the weight he was at 18. I think we’ve got to draw a line under what’s gone on before. We definitely want to keep him. He’s one of those players who sets good standards in training.”

In the absence of a number of new additions, Keegan is using his motivational powers to different effect. “We won’t have the biggest squad and we might not have the best team in the Premiership, because there’s some big clubs out there with big squads, but we can be the fittest team,” he said. “That’s what I’ve told the lads.”