Readers Letter: A Pro-Souness View (3)
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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
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