Graeme Souness was the man Newcastle United identified as the key to re-establishing order in the dressing room after player power had ruled for the final months of Sir Bobby Robson's time as manager. Just months later, he was sitting side by side with two of his players who had come to actual blows on the pitch in front of millions of watching fans. So that was one objective missed spectacularly. His second agenda was to return Newcastle to the top four after Sir Bobby's fifth place finish was deemed poor enough to warrant the sack. In his first season, Newcastle finished 14th and they were 15th when he was finally sacked in February 2006, so that was two major objectives missed with aplomb. But at least he signed some good players eh? He built on Sir Bobby's most shrewd transfer policy by spending £10m on Albert Luque, £8.5m on Jean-Alain Boumsong and probably £10m too much on Michael Owen. All were abject failures. A third strike. Such was his poor managerial ability that rumours of dressing room unrest and favouritism were rife, with Olivier Bernard, Craig Bellamy and Jermain Jenas all leaving on bad terms with him.
