Souness would not be drawn on the story, but Freddy Shepherd refused to to deny them today.
Souness was indeed put on the spot, but defected the attention onto the next match: "I am more concerned with trying to sign players for this football club and at the same time we are focusing on Wednesday's game with Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium."
According to the Chronicle there has been no talk at boardroom level about Souness's position and there most definitely has been no approach to either Aston Villa or O'Leary. But O'Leary's name is cropping up a little too often to simply pass the story off as "rubbish".