Souness also had a message for the new boss, saying he does not believe Joe Kinnear's attitude towards the press is the correct approach, even though he can empathise with him.
Souness: 'He's wrong. You can't group them all [the press] and say, "You're all bad, I'm not speaking to you"' .
'It is a difficult, difficult job up there but all the press are not bad. My advice to him would be to work out who the good ones are, the ones who are going to give you a fair crack of the whip, and go from there. 'When I was up there, some of the press were outrageous.
'I think to categorise them into the same group and say, "That's it, blanket ban", I think he is making a big mistake.
'I can understand where Joe is coming from, when I was at Newcastle some of them were outrageous.
'There are some things up there that take place, with ex-professionals, ex-players, who go out of their way to make life difficult for the players and the managers, and the coaches.
'It is as if they take great delight in causing problems. They talk about Newcastle being a soap opera, and it is.
'It deserves to be one of the big clubs. They have had some fantastic managers up there but not one of them has been given enough time because there is elements of the press - not all of them - that constantly look on the dark side.
'You are only one game away from the roof caving in up there.'