Deano

From the Guardian, Monday afternoon:

Graeme Souness was tonight still in charge at St James's Park after a brief meeting with chairman Freddy Shepherd. The under-fire Newcastle manager was expected to be summoned to the stadium this morning but eventually held talks with Shepherd in the afternoon.

He left with his name still on the door of the manager's office and ready to continue preparations for Saturday's FA Cup fourth-round clash with Cheltenham.

Souness, who was driven to and from the ground by coach Dean Saunders, revealed he had spent around 10 minutes with the chairman and their conversation had been "upbeat".


Well?

Assistant boss Dean Saunders, speaking to the BBC on Monday:

"The papers have been saying Graeme's on his way for the last three weeks. We'll just keep going on as normal.

"He's at the training ground now and it's business as usual. We're busy preparing for our next game.

"We'll be a different team when we get some of these players back, it's no secret.

"It's never good when you're not winning, but we're all looking forward to the game next week.

"It's a big game for us that we've got to win. The frustrating thing for us as a coaching team has been the injuries. We're not where we want to be.

"I actually thought the supporters were good on Saturday.

"They understand that we've not got our full team out. We had eight players who would be in the starting line-up who were on the sidelines against Blackburn.

"But as long as the players give 100%, which I thought they did on Saturday, they'll forgive them for anything they can't do."

Here's a little game for you then; name our first-choice team in the wake of Dean's comments....

All but three of Saturday's starting XI* drop out, to be replaced by Dyer, Carr, Parker, Emre, Owen, Ameobi, Taylor and Faye. Moore is assumed not to be in the dream starting lineup.....

* this was: Given, Ramage, Bramble, Boumsong, Babayaro, Solano, Bowyer, Clark, Luque Shearer, Chopra.

i would of thought only 4 or 5 players out of the starting line up who are injured now . . . those being Owen, Parker, Emre, Taylor and maybe Carr