Can pundits be banned from talking utter garbage about Newcastle United? A question I ask now Graeme Souness has made some pathetic claims about the club and its supporters.
Here’s what he’s had to say:
“People go there thinking, ‘I’ll be the one who brings the good days back.’ But it isn’t as simple as that.
“Newcastle has been a graveyard for managers for years.”
“I remember my first game there was against Blackburn. I went into hospitality before the match and saw the chairman’s wife. She said, ‘So you’re the new lion-tamer’, and she pointed at the crowd.
“They are wild and they demand success.”
Once again with the “we demand success” claim. It’s getting tiresome as pundit after pundit lay the line out again and again. Some have never been part of the Toon. Played against us and in front of a full St. James Park, but never either pulled on the black and white nor selected a player to play in the colours.
I can’t remember Souness being forced to come into Newcastle back in September 2004 when the Club wrongly sacked Sir Bobby. He was happy to take the money and thinking what he’d achieved at Liverpool and Rangers thought he knew what it took to manage a ‘big club.’
Fast forward to February 2nd, 2006 and he was gone. He took over a side that Sir Bobby had guided to 5th the season before and took us to 15th before being given the bullet and being replaced by Glen Roeder (R.I.P) who saved us from the relegation we were sliding towards.
Souness is painted as a ‘Hard Man’ and a man that will take no prisoners or that brown sticky stuff. He famously fell out with the likes of Craig Bellamy, Laurent Robert, and Jermaine Jenas all of whom he sold along with Olivier Bernard.
He signed the likes of Amdy Faye, Celestine Babayaro, Albert Luque (£10m!) & Jean Alain Boumsong (£8.5m!). Boumsong in particular was a player that Sir Bobby went to France to have a look at and said he wasn’t physical enough for the Premier League.
He subsequently went to Souness’s beloved Rangers on a free from Auxerre before Souness brought him to The Toon. This was after we had played Rangers in a pre-season game where Shearer ran riot over him and was quick to point out that we’d dodged a bullet.
Remember too that the Boumsong transfer was one of the transfers that the Inland Revenue looked into very closely. Not surprising when you consider how much we paid for him!
So, Souness you were in charge of us and had the opportunity to understand and realise what it might take to make us appreciate you. You say we are wild and demand success. No, we don’t! We want a side that tries to win games of football and players that respect the shirt.
Oh, and by the way Souness left Newcastle in 2006 and has managed who since?
Well said Jeff – because he failed here that makes it impossible? Right ? Laughable and stealing a living as a pundit. 😆
Rich E(Quote)
Is he honestly suggesting that we are so much more demanding than the Liverpool fans he has such a love in with.
Funny the ‘chairman’s wife’ was calling out the fans – who was her husband again?!.
The trouble for Souness & pretty much every manager since was/isn’t the fans – it’s the chairman & owners haven’t got the same ambition.
It’s not success we demand – it’s ambition.
Compete with Everton, West Ham, Leicester and you’d fill SJP again & the atmosphere would be bouncing & there wouldn’t be a manager in the country that wouldn’t want the job.
Sharpy17(Quote)
He is Right in his GRAVEYARD comparison = The Hapless Owner, Managing Director and Board KEEP bringing in Bodies that haven’t any brain activity!
Time for these numpty’s to go – taking the clown Bruce with them as he’s simply not a MANAGER
KK(Quote)
What Souness also fails to mention is that the first game was Blackburn as he says, but doesn’t mention it was HIS Blackburn team and they were atrocious. I remember everyone at that game, including me, was saying ‘This will be us in about 6 months’ and it was!
Douglas Sweeney(Quote)
Because HE failed here? Where have you been since 1955 when the other 29 managers also failed to do it?
Helen Clarey(Quote)
“Oh, and by the way Souness left Newcastle in 2006 and has managed who since?”
You think you’re being clever, but you are actually making Souness’s point for him – he said that we are a manager’s graveyard. His whole point was that managers who come to Newcastle don’t do anything afterwards.
Oh – and if in doubt throw a “pathetic” into the mix. That always shows you have a solid argument!
Rather ironic – you calling Souness pathetic. Souness – a hugely successful player and one of the most successful managers we’ve ever had!
JFA127(Quote)