Graeme Souness has slammed the local coverage of Newcastle United, stating that his reign at St. James' Park was the most difficult of his managerial career.
The 66-year-old Scot spent two years at Newcastle between 2004 and 2006, his last position as a manager after becoming a regular on Sky Sports' Premier League coverage in recent history.
Now, with a new dawn emerging at Newcastle with Steve Bruce taking the reigns, Souness has slammed the coverage of Newcastle in the North East - claiming that it makes the challenges for the squad much harder.
“It’s a very, very difficult job. Newcastle has been a difficult club to manage for a long, long time. Rafa managed to calm the waters when he was there but for every other manager in recent history it’s been a difficult job,” he told Sky Sports.
“There is a frustration at Newcastle because they feel they should be so much better. Fifty-thousand people every week, they are a big football club. I had eight jobs and that was the most difficult one I ever had.
“Matt Ritchie touched on it with an interview this week, saying everyone has to row in the same direction. The job is hard enough when everyone is pulling in the same direction.
“I got the job, the local press man was an absolute fool, I can’t remember his name. He was proud to say he got the last four managers sacked. That’s a local newspaper, they should be promoting the football club not damaging it at every opportunity.
“There’s factors up there who are constantly looking to get a cheap headline, make life difficult for the football club and make life difficult for the players, You have to be a big personality to perform at Newcastle.”
