By The Northern Philosopher
December 1 2005

If Souness loses his job before the end of season then it will be nothing short of a disgarace and a victory for mob rule. It will also prove yet again - if more proof were needed - that this club is unmanageable... Because if a certain vocal section of supporters don't like you then you may as well not bother unpacking. Every opportunity they get these people will call for you to be sacked. That's irrespective of what problems you've faced or what good you've done for the club. If these people don't like you from the off then they won't give you a chance. And so it's proved with Souness.

Of course, these people will say, of course we've given him a chance, we've given him all of last season and the start of this. And look at all the money Souness has spent, they'll say, and we're no further forward. It's funny but these people call people who are optimistic 'blinkered' when it is in fact them who are the blinkered ones. They're blinkered because they refuse to acknowledge anything which contradicts what they're saying.

Souness has had part of last season and about a third of this season in charge of Newcastle. But Souness was getting booed within a few monthes of being appointed, how much of a chance did he get given then? And how about acknowledging all the problems Souness has faced last season and this which have hindered Newcastle's progress and his job? Giving somebody a chance is about more than just giving them some time to get settled before you throw them out. Bobby Robson finished his first two seasons in charge of United in the bottom half of the table but people gavehim a chance and he ended up taking us into the top four and Champions League football. Why give Bobby a chance and yetnot Souness?

As for the money that Souness has had to spend, you'd think that this was some kind of panacea, a cure-all. Just because we've spent money on players doesn't protect us from them getting injured. You'd think surely to God that people would acknowledge this, that somethings do happen which the manager has no control over and can't be blamed for? I mean, the Titanic cost a lot of money to build but it didn't protect her from hitting an iceberg and sinking! But, no, the people who never gave Souness a chance have evn got an answer for this too! An answer which, surprise surprise, lays the blame at the feet of Graeme Souness! Oh well. they say, it must have been Souness's coaching and training methods that caused the injuries! So, Keiron Dyer, Michael Owen and Titus Bramble weren't picking up injuries before they were managed by Souness? And don't footballers in general pick up injuries anyway because it's a physically demanding sport? Oh well, they reply, if Souness hadn't sold so many players then we would've had cover for the injured players. What, you mean the sub standard trouble makers like JJ, Kluivert, Robert, Bellamy and Butt who either signed their own marching orders or who the crowd has been calling for to be sold for ages?

And this is how it goes with them. One more reason after another to try and make it appear that their wanting to get rid of Souness is based on justified and rational reasoning. Every time you think you've proved them wrong they just pop right up with another poor argument for you to disprove. Do you remember when some people were trying to convince us that Souness would only buy terrible players from the SPL like Dado Prso?! Andd when that was disproved by us buying Owen you thought we'd moved on a step but no. As soon as they got the opportunity to start rallying the troops against Souness again, they took it and we were back to square one!

I wouldn't blame Souness if he just decided to hand in his resignation to the Chairman and walk away from all this. Certain sections of the crowd will never give him a chance, they'll take every opportunity they can to get him sacked. Graeme Souness must have balls the size of watermelons to have given him the guts to take on this job in the first place let alone stick at it!

If you thought the match against Wigan was an embarresment to the club then you haven't seen anything yet. Because if Souness is sacked because of these selfish, bully boy individuals who never gave a decent man a chance then this will be a far greater embarrasment to the club than losing one measley league cup game.