Souness - 'Some dope was always doing something!'

Graeme Souness has rather comically stated that when he was manger at Blackburn it was as if some ‘dope’ at Newcastle was always doing what they shouldn’t be doing.

A fair observation you may argue given that during that time period Newcastle endured press coverage ranging from sexual accusations to airport scuffles whilst also managing to break every motoring law you can think of.

He was quoted as saying, "From the outside looking in before I took this job it seemed to be a recurring situation. The club were making headlines not for attractive football but because some dope was doing what he shouldn't be doing."

Souness has made it clear that he will not tolerate such outbursts as that of Craig Bellamy’s at the weekend.  Despite the supporters’ apparent agreement with Bellamy’s frustration, Souness is correct in that the press coverage afforded to the incident is unhealthy for the club and for their preparations ahead of Thursday’s Uefa Cup tie.

We don’t want Bellamy to keep his mouth shut when it comes to winding up the opposition and even the officials to a sensible extent, but in house matters should be just that and if Bellamy has something to say then don’t utter it in front of a watching nation.

It was a rather dubious decision to replace Bellamy, and not the only debatable decision of the afternoon, but thus far under the Scot’s tenure we remain undefeated.

Away from St.James we look steelier and resolute and start matches full of attacking ideas.  We need to combine this added grit with creative flair throughout the 90 minutes and hopefully then we will see away draws turn into away victories.