Newcastle owner Constantine intent on strengthening squad

Newcastle Jets owner Con Constantine says he is intent on strengthening the squad next season by bringing in a quality marquee player.

The Jets recently lost their former star striker Joel Griffiths after he joined Chinese Super League club Beijing Guoan permanently after a messy dispute and their current marquee man, Italian midfielder Fabio Vignaroli, is out for the season with a serious knee injury.

Constantine is adamant he will use the cash received from the Griffiths sale for the good of the playing list and admitted the club was now over that saga and ready to move forward.

''Am I willing to reinvest? Yes I am,'' Constantine said. ''It's too late to find another marquee for this season, but I've always been fair dinkum about getting good players into the club, and that's not changed. We'll be looking around, but it's got to be the right one.

''There's no sense in getting a marquee player if we don't get the right dividend. That means he's got to play well, but he's also got to put bums on seats.

''Let's put it this way, we wasted a full week preparing for arbitration, then we spend 9 ½ hours in there, and guess what? The day after his agent rings me saying he now wants to strike a deal. He [Griffiths] created a major problem, but at least we're lucky enough to get over it and now we can all move on.''