Sam Allardyce joked yesterday that he was born a pessimist but, behind the smile, realism is shaping the new Newcastle United manager's thoughts. With Kieron Dyer expected to leave this week, providing West Ham offer more than €7.5 million, Allardyce will have some fresh money to spend, but doing so in an increasingly tough transfer market is the cause for a reduction in optimism at St James' Park.

"I'm confident I'll get the number of players we need," Allardyce said, "but I'm not sure about the quality."

This was the first day of the post-Freddy Shepherd era and Allardyce's tone was matched by Shepherd's successor as chairman, Chris Mort.

Mort said of transfer dealings: "We will not be throwing silly amounts of money around, but Sam and I are definitely in agreement that we need more signings before the start of the season. We have said throughout that the squad needs to be strengthened, particularly in defence. We are talking about a few specific targets. We want players with Premiership experience."

None of yesterday's words were gung-ho. Allardyce referred to targeting "10 to 15 players in the last couple of weeks", but he has been unable to sign any. Partly, he explained, that is due to Newcastle being out of European competition. But Allardyce also made the broader point about inflation: "A £1 million player five years ago is now a £5 million player."

However, after expressing "sadness" at Shepherd's departure, Allardyce added of the delay in making signings: "The changeover has been the biggest problem we've had, of course. It's been very quick considering what's involved in a takeover, but there's new people in, the old out and moving around the whole business and structure. Trying to get to where you want to get can be a little bit difficult sometimes, and I understand that because you've got to find everything out about the new business, but you can get frustrated because it moves slower than you'd like.

"It's Chris Mort I deal with now in the main, but he hasn't had that much experience in football terms, so one would hope that now we'll get even quicker. I can't move any quicker than I am doing, but the problem is that there's lots of players we've targeted and spoken to that have now been taken by other clubs, so the pot of high quality has reduced."

Dyer (28), is one of the few players with England caps and lengthy Premier League experience not subject to inflation, but he is available for purchase.

Dyer has two young children based in his native Ipswich and wishes to be closer to them. This has caused Dyer to be unsettled on Tyneside after eight years. A move to West Ham - and Dyer is wanted by Alan Curbishley - would solve the problem and simultaneously give Newcastle some spending power.

"I think there's a possibility he might leave due to family reasons," Allardyce said. "It is obviously a shame, but when something like this crops up and there's no resolving the issue - it might be that the only way to resolve it is to allow him to leave. If and when the offers come in, we will have to consider them."

Allardyce said Newcastle had received no official offer for Dyer. He added: "We won't let other clubs take advantage . . by thinking they can pinch him on the cheap."