THERE was something cruel about the scene at St James’ Park yesterday as Graeme Souness offered his reaction to Newcastle United’s latest defeat, a 1-0 loss to Blackburn Rovers made all the more unbearable by the visitors’ goal coming from a blatant handball. For Souness is a decent man and there was much to admire in the way he addressed the obvious and most difficult question yesterday.

“I will say this once and once only,” he said. “The first priority in my life is my family, to do the very best each day for my family. The second priority is my work and to do the very best for whatever club I work for. I will continue to do that until somebody tells me otherwise.”

He was speaking of Freddy Shepherd, the Newcastle chairman, who treats his managers like Mae West once treated her lovers. To be fair to Ms West, her lovers probably had more fun.

Outside the Newcastle press room, but near enough for Souness to hear, about 600 Newcastle fans chanted “Souness out”. How can a man continue to speak calmly when, within earshot, the mob are baying for his blood? Yet, as the questions came, Souness never missed a beat. “Are there any circumstances under which you would
consider your position?”

“I have answered that question,” he said, refusing to rise to the bait. He was once a cold fish in Liverpool’s midfield and he remains a cool fish. As the fans’ disapproval rent the air, he spoke about Emre’s injury and the possibility of soon having his Turkish midfielder back in action.

Forty miles south, another football manager tried to ease his way through a crisis. Steve McClaren’s Middlesbrough are now so near the relegation zone, they can hear the trap door creaking. Like Souness, McClaren’s squad has been weakened by injury and they have both pleaded for understanding. Do they not realise this is football? Compassion? What next? McClaren’s senior players are far from enamoured with his style of management and relations will not have been helped
by a 3-2 defeat at home to Wigan.

Poor Souness has never been much loved by Newcastle’s fans and, if that wasn’t enough, there is the threat of Shepherd. Last week the chairman insisted it was
time for the manager to stop talking about injuries. In yesterday’s match programme, Souness devoted the first third of his column to recounting the catalogue of injuries. Chairman and manager not singing off the same hymn sheet; soon they may not be in the same cathedral.

That’s football, you say. Unforgiving business. So how then do we explain the phenomenon of Mick McCarthy’s popularity at Sunderland? His team are stranded at the foot of the Premiership yet the manager can do no wrong. And that was before just their second victory of the season yesterday. A 1-0 win at West Brom might not be the stuff of earth-shattering achievement but it means that one manager slept soundly in the northeast last night.

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