This story appeared in the Glasgow Evening Times, I've underlined the text which is of interest to Newcastle fans.

Rangers chairman David Murray resisted calls to axe Alex McLeish at the start of last season - and insists his faith was rewarded by winning the championship. The Ibrox club made a sticky start to the new campaign and at one stage it looked as though Old Firm rivals Celtic were gearing up for another title. Having finished 19 points behind Martin O'Neill's men the season before, Gers fans were banking on having more to shout about with a string of new arrivals checking in at the club over the summer. But things didn't go to plan at first, and had Murray reacted in a rash fashion to many calls, big Eck might not have been at the helm to celebrate lifting the seventh trophy of his managerial career at Ibrox. Murray said: "I have never sacked a manager but, with the greatest respect, I didn't exactly endorse Graeme Souness going to Liverpool. "His timing was far from perfect and when he came to me, I said: "Look, as much as we all love you, you better go just now" - and he duly resigned. "I don't think I will be frightened to sack somebody, but some people are far too trigger-happy in this business. "If you take this year at Rangers, for example, Alex was given instructions - and I use the word loosely - to close the gap on Celtic. "My chat with Alex was that the gap in 2004 was not acceptable. We had to get within a couple of points and I don't think that anyone can dispute that Alex hit that target." Murray believes clubs are all too willing to pull the plug on a manager's time before giving them a chance to see their work through. He said: "I am not going to hire and fire a manager on two or three results, or because the media are scenting blood. "Now that decision has been totally vindicated and, as it transpired, the championship victory will be regarded by many as the most pleasing and satisfactory of my tenure. "Things can always go two ways, but my philosophy is that if you do not have that bond of friendship with the people you work with, then there is no point in working with them. "I like to chat with people, through highs and the lows. I still have that with Dick Advocaat, with Walter Smith. And I still have that with Graeme. "I regard them as close friends - all three are coming as guests to my son, Keith's wedding. "Graeme has continued to help Rangers since he left by buying players. He is still a fan. Dick helped us by taking Craig Moore off our hands and Walter is, well, Walter. "It even goes beyond that. Graeme's son works for my organisation in Manchester and Walter's son works for Rangers, because they were all pals with my two sons. "I'm a great believer that you work together, and that is why I set a lot of store by loyalty - both in business and football." Murray insists McLeish has been set new targets for next season and is expecting the manager to build on the success he enjoyed this season. "Two weeks ago, myself, Martin Bain and one of my company chief executives were in the south of France," said Murray. "Alex came out for a day, as well, and we spoke about the way ahead for Rangers. "We clearly defined the strategy so that everyone knew it. "Alex has more than met his target. He will be given another one next year. "Maybe others like to give a public vote of confidence, but not too many of them are worth anything in the grand scheme of things. Too often, chairmen are too short-sighted. "Perhaps people go the extra mile for me and for Rangers because they know I will give it back."

Henning Berg commenting on Souness quitting Blackburn:

"I know Souness as a manager and he has got several weaknesses. It will depend on who comes in, but it should be good for Gamst Pedersen's development," said Berg. "I will not comment on what the weaknesses of Souness are, but results in the past have been weak considering the players and money the club have. It's good for Blackburn as a club too, I'm in fact a bit surprised that Newcastle chose him. "It's hard to say how good Blackburn can do this season. Souness has managed to sell several of the best players: Damien Duff, David Dunn, Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole.

Here's some quotes from Souness:

"This is arguably the best squad I have ever worked with but I know that I have to win something. "The players know that and, although I'm coming in with my own ideas, there won't be any dramatic changes." "I think if you look at the group of players here, there are some top-class performers and the next step is to win something." "I'm inheriting a fabulous situation."

Souness commenting after Bowyer and Dyer fought on the pitch.

"I can envisage both of them playing for Newcastle again. Players like them do not come along every day and they are class players.

Souness commenting about his plans for the new season

"We have made our mind up on near enough everything for next year. We have targets that we are going for, and we will make changes here - but that's all on paper. That's the easyy part. The hard part is making these things happen."

"It was hard on us tonight. I don't think we deserved to lose. But you have to give Norwich credit, they kept going right until the end."
Norwich were bottom of the league at the time.

"I think we did an okay job in the circumstances. I know that 4-1 doesn't look like a great scoreline but look at what happened here. We looked good after scoring the first goal but we missed too many chances." That was his comment after we were knocked out of the UEFA Cup. "We are very disappointed. We felt that things conspired against us.

"I'm not condoning what they did in any way but the referee had a very disappointing game today and the frustration our players felt going down 3-0 has shown itself with someone wanting to go boxing." Right, so it was the referee to blame for Bowyer butting and punching Dyer.

Souness criticised Knight in his post-match press conference after the Barclays Premiership clash at Goodison Park in which Shola Ameobi was sent off for slapping Tim Cahill on the back of the head. Souness has until June 6 to respond to the FA charge. The FA`s website www.thefa.com revealed that Souness had been charged with "a breach of FA Rule E3 for a failure to act in the best interests of the game and/or having brought the game into disrepute". Souness bitterly attacked Knight, who sent off three Magpies players earlier in the season in the home clash with Aston Villa, after he dismissed Shola Ameobi against the Merseysiders. Souness claimed a bad penalty decision in the Villa game caused the original friction and he again hit out at Knight, saying: "The referee was apologising to some of our lads before the game for the penalty he gave in that Aston Villa match. It was outside the box and he said that. "That was the game when we had three players sent off out of extreme frustration. But Mr Knight escaped without any criticism that day and this time he has given a free-kick to Everton that wasn`t and it changed the game. "There were other decisions he got wrong. We feel hard done by again because of Mr Knight. I won`t defend Ameobi for what he did and when he was sent off the game was over but Boumsong says it wasn`t a foul on Bent when they scored their first." Does this poor excuse of a manager always look for a scapegoat?