Fans Must Be Patient

By Nick Raynor
December 6 2005

I’m sorry to say it, but we just have to give Graeme Souness until the end of the season.

Sacking Souness at this point in the season will do no-one any good. No manager, halfway though what can only be described as a piss-poor season so far, would touch Newcastle with a barge-pole.

 

Mid-table might not be so terrible, but for a team with so much potential, mid-table mediocrity is not good enough. We all know that a UEFA Cup spot is the minimum we require. Especailly with the players we have, who surely will not settle for our current position.

 

I have heard people moaning about Sir Bobby Robson being sacked, saying we should have never done it. I don’t recall these people moaning at the time SBR went, after we were hammered by Villa.

 

I liked Bobby, but he had lost the respect of the players. Does the term ‘rat-pack’ ring a bell? The fact that we were always in the press for the bad reasons? Players accused of rape? Player’s throwing the captains armband away? On the front pages of the tabloids more than the back?

 

Give Souness just a tiny bit of credit. He’s sorted most of that out. At least we are a team that are sticking by each other.

 

Look at the singings he and Shepherd made. Emre, Parker, Luque - Even Michael Owen for crying out loud! They are top signings, but for some reasons, we are just not winning.

 

With Taylor and Owen back, I fully expect us to start playing well again. Our next game is against Arsenal, and I think it would be amazing if we won, but I would settle for a point.

 

Sacking Souness anytime soon will just leave us with a useless or inexperienced manager, something we don’t need at the moment.

 

We finish in the bottom half come the summer – fine, get rid of him. But until then, we just have to wait and hope.