GRAEME SOUNESS is not perturbed by the prospect of juggling four leading centre forwards, each possessing a ferocious ego to match their talent. Alan Shearer, Craig Bellamy, Patrick Kluivert and Shola Ameobi are a quartet to make managers tremble, never mind defenders, but Sir Bobby Robson’s successor has no qualms about the challenge facing him when he picks his first Newcastle United team tomorrow.
Robson’s brittle relationship with Shearer, who has spoken of his desire to play in every match this season, had been an alarming theme of the last, difficult year, Bellamy would test the patience of a saint, a personality as expansive as Kluivert’s will not be content with life on the substitutes’ bench and Ameobi, who turns 23 next month, is ready for regular football.
Even before Souness concluded his “gardening leave” from Blackburn Rovers, there were rumblings of unrest, although Kluivert denied yesterday that he had refused to participate in last week’s reserve-team fixture away to Wolverhampton Wanderers. Coincidence or otherwise, when Robson omitted Shearer from the side that lost 4-2 at Aston Villa, it was his final act in charge.
It is a significant issue and, against Bnei Sachnin in the Uefa Cup at St James’ Park, Souness will experience a taste of it. He is relishing the task. “If you’re a manager, you want to be selecting your team, not having it pick itself,” he said. “It’s going to be difficult, but the four of them are not going to be fit and available for every single game this year anyway.
“From time to time, we have to be looking to rest certain people, but by and large, if you get in there and do really well, you’ll hold onto that shirt.”
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Ronny Johnsen, the 35-year-old Norway defender, has undergone a medical and is expected to sign for Newcastle today. The former Manchester United and Aston Villa centre half — presently out of contract — has been targeted by Souness as a short-term replacement for Jonathan Woodgate, who left for Real Madrid for £13.4 million last month.
John Carver has been offered the opportunity to work at Newcastle’s youth academy after being relieved of his duties as first-team coach. The 39-year-old, caretaker manager for last weekend’s 3-0 victory over Blackburn, will discuss the proposal at St James’ Park today, but has been linked with the managerial vacancy at Preston North End.