By Matthew Jones
November 20 2004

Graeme Souness' has recently suffered four defeats in his last five games in charge at Newcastle United and questions are now being asked as to wether or not he is the right man for the job.

Can we really judge Souness now though?  You can't expect someone to come in and be successful straight away... can you?  But what does Souness think?

Souness said:

"I am not a man who lives by excuses and I can put my hand on my heart and say that at times football has given me everything I wanted.

"But now what I want most is to bring success to this football club and I am convinced we are only a cat's whisker away from being a good team.

"If we can get new players in over the New Year as the chairman has said, we will then, I believe, take this club on to a new level.

"But we have to stay calm and stay focused. We have a good group of players here, but we know what our weaknesses are. So we have to strengthen those weaknesses and cultivate what we already have, and I would ask our fans to judge me at the end of next season."

He was then asked about his job, and wether he is still as excited by it as he was when he first arrived at St James' Park, and he added:

"I certainly am, yes.

"That hasn't changed. I realise this was the only big club open to me to manage.

"I had half a chance at Chelsea before Jose Mourinho arrived, Arsene Wenger can stay at Arsenal for as long as he wants, I couldn't go back to Anfield and as a former Liverpool manager I was never going to get the job at Manchester United."

So, lets not judge Souness now... lets wait until the end of next season and see how well HIS squad does!