Following criticism that N.O was overly critical of Graeme Souness, we set you the readers a challenge, asking you to send in your pro-Souness views and while not many of you took up the challenge, one or two of you did and as promised, here they are, published in full. Thanks to everyone who wrote in.

Newcastle-Online.com reader Jay H, has took up our challenge to write a positive e-mail concerning Graeme Souness and his future as Newcastle United manager. Jay is worried about a possible relegation dog-fight and champions Souness as just the man to stave off such a threat.

You asked for some positive comments about Souness and these are my thoughts. I think Souness should stay. Although not as successful as a manager as he was as a player, at least you can say he’s managed many clubs over the years so should know his business by now.

We weren’t going to win the league with Sir Bobby so it was clear that we needed a change, although to be fair, I’m not sure whether Freddy offered to support Sir Bobby with the same transfer funds as he’s made available to Graeme.

We’d already been turned down by Allardyce and others, and Martin O’Neil wasn’t available then, so paying Blackburn £2m for Souness was the only option available to us if we wanted to change things. Admittedly the timing wasn’t great, and nor was the treatment of Sir Bobby, but this is a business and sometimes you have to take difficult decisions.

At the end of the day Souness is spot on when he says “Football management isn’t rocket science, its just about buying the best players”. Mourinho has proved this and that’s exactly what Souness has tried to do.

No-one complained when we bought Owen or Parker, and while his other signings may appear lightweight at the moment, maybe they just need time to adjust to the Premiership?

We do need more players though, in all areas of the pitch, so I’m surprised that the Board is now saying there is no more funds available. As a club I thought that we could borrow up to another £30m before fully mortgaging SJP? And to be honest, if Freddy can afford to pay himself £4m a year in dividends and god knows how much else in wages and interest on loans then surely he can put his hand in his pocket - the club has been good to him since he bought it so he should support the manager.

It is a shame that we’ve had to let certain players go for relatively small fees (and how many £m’s have we just lost on Robert! We could’ve done with that right now!), but that’s just the way Souness is, he’s a fighter and if anyone disrespects him then he wants them out, no matter what the cost.

The team is paid to do a job and if certain individuals don’t agree with the boss’ methods then they should go. Also in order to bring new players in on the size of the wages reported for Parker, Emre, Owen, Luque, etc. and any future signings it’s clear that we had to trim the rest of the squad down or we’d forever be making a loss.

There has also been talk that his tactics have been wrong occasionally, and I must admit that sometimes it can be frustrating but I suspect fans of all clubs would say the same about their team and manager. The fact of the matter is, as Souness has repeatedly pointed out if we have crap players then we can’t expect to win every game - look at Sunderland!

His winning nature means that he will push people, and sometimes that means they will perhaps come back from injury a little too early, but sometimes you have to take that risk. Admittedly the risk hasn’t paid off this season, but if it had we could been back in a European position.

I suspect that the media doesn’t like him because he can appear quite surly and angry and, to be fair he’s not had much to be happy about with recent results going against us. Actually I should point out that this is one part of the manager that I dislike - I do get wound up when he doesn’t bother coming on TV after the game. Not telling us himself what went wrong and what he’s going to do about it looks like he couldn’t be bothered talking to the fans - and when we’ve just lost, that when we need him more than ever, show us that he understands the problems and can fix them rather than just disappear in a sulk.

Finally, one of the key reasons I think that we should keep Souness is because we need him. We are nearly in danger of having to fight a relegation battle and we need fighters of his stature at the club, someone who can make sure the team scrap for every point and keep us up. I do not want to see this once great club back in the lower divisions again and I think Souness is the one to keep us up.

P.S. If I win the star prize of a box of Daz Ultra can I donate it to Lee Bowyer because he’s a scruffy bastard!

By Jay H