SIR Bobby Robson is pressing ahead with plans for an assault on the Premiership next season - even though Newcastle United are counting the cost of failing to clinch a Champions League place.

The Magpies will miss out on at least £10m after losing the battle for fourth to Liverpool for the right to play in European football's exclusive club competition next season.

It will be the second consecutive year that Newcastle - who lost out to Partizan Belgrade in the qualifier last August - have failed to hit their target.

Now Newcastle, whose draw at Southampton on Wednesday night left them in sixth, must face up to the likelihood that Aston Villa may even pip them in the race to clinch a place in the less lucrative UEFA Cup.

Under-fire Robson has been hoping to capture the signatures of at least two top names during the summer - and knows Champions League football would have gone along way to luring the likes of Leeds' Alan Smith to St James' Park.

However, Smith, who would have been tempted to team up again with former Elland Road teammates Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer, is more likely to opt for Manchester United, Arsenal or even Liverpool.

The massive cash windfall from the Champions League would also have left Robson heavily armed in the transfer market.

But now the Newcastle chief, the spender of over £60m in four and a half years on Tyneside, will have to wheel and deal with less financial clout providing chairman Freddy Shepherd decides to give him more time.

He may offload erratic pair Laurent Robert and Hugo Viana, who are both considering leaving following the barracking they received from the supporters after the draw with Wolves on Sunday, for cut price fees in a bid to top up his summer sales fund.

With club talisman Alan Shearer one year away from retirement and midfielder Gary Speed not getting any younger, Robson needs to find replacements.

In Speed's case there will be every opportunity for Jermaine Jenas, Bowyer and Kieron Dyer to prove they are the future. Finding someone to fill legendary Shearer's boots, though, will be an all together different task.

But Robson, also desperate for a new right-back, is convinced a club of Newcastle's stature will be able to compete with the best when it comes to bargaining with prospective signings.

And he insists there will be players around with the pedigree to take over the role from Shearer and Speed.

"Chelsea would think there's a few Rolls-Royce players around," said Robson, whose club made £4m from their run to the UEFA Cup semi-finals this season. "It won't be hard to attract players to this club, not at all. Shearer and Speed have another year left and maybe more.

"I have a budget in place for the summer, we will pay what we can. The chairman doesn't put the club in hoc and I wouldn't want him to. But he knows we need a couple of players and I'm sure we will do something about it."

Robson admitted recently that this has been the most difficult season of his Tyneside tenure.

And his off the record comments criticising the club's supporters, which were beamed around St James' Park television screens on Sunday, didn't help matters.

Had Newcastle, four points adrift of Liverpool and one short of Aston Villa, defended better over the past nine months, then a place in the Champions League would have already been assured.

At St Mary's on Wednesday it was more of the same. Three goals scored but three calamitous goals conceded.

And Robson said: "It was like a tennis match. To think we nearly didn't get anything out of the game is incredible. If we'd have played like that for much of the year then we would have walked it.

"Every time we have played at home and then gone away looking to back it up with a victory we had a disappointment. We were winning at Portsmouth, Blackburn and we conceded a late goal at Tottenham. Those games cost us points."

Even if Newcastle win at Anfield tomorrow their UEFA Cup hopes rest on Manchester United beating Aston Villa at Villa Park.

Robson will have to keep with the same squad that attacked so well at Southampton because Bellamy, Jenas and Woodgate are all still out.

The Newcastle boss was delighted with Dyer's return to action and the midfielder will be given another chance to boost his Euro 2004 hopes on Merseyside tomorrow.

"On the face of Wednesday's performance Dyer's hamstring held up and he will be even fitter for Saturday so he should be alright for another game." said Robson.

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