Shearer Praises Souness - "Times are Changing"

By Matthew Jones
September 22 2004

Magpies' striker Alan Shearer has praised new manager Graeme Souness following his impressive start.

Shearer said:

"I'm not being detrimental to Sir Bobby Robson because he did a wonderful job here, but how many times have we seen it happen at a club?

"A new manager comes in and it changes results. Training has been a little different under Graeme and there is a slightly different feel about the place, everybody wants to impress the new manager.

"We've got ourselves a platform to build on now. We've won three games in a row and we've restored some confidence. We have set a standard and we cannot fall below that standard now. We've had bad starts in the past and have recovered. We need to use this week as a springboard for a really good run of results. We need to be looking to put together a lot of wins on the trot.

"We've done it before and this squad is capable of doing something like that because it is a squad full of ability. We've taken six points from our last two league games and we're in a good position in the Uefa Cup. But we're not be thinking about going to Israel until after we've played West Bromwich Albion next weekend. It's a home game and we've got to make sure we make it nine points out of nine. It's about putting together back-to-back wins and rising up the table.

"I don't want to be drawn into talking about my future as a player at the moment. I just want to concentrate on playing my football for the club. I've got nothing to say on the matter."