"Souness insisted the theme of his conversation with Shepherd (alleged 'clear the air talks) was 'the possibility of bringing new players we'd like to bring in'." - Souness quoted in The Times article, Friday 6th January, 2006.
And so the circus act that is Newcastle United continues. An undeserved last minute equaliser at home to Middlesbrough last weekend spared Souness' blushes once more. That in itself is a sad indictment on the club's current state. Now the squeak of a narrow victory over Mansfield town has been drowned out by the noise of Alan Shearer finally breaking Jackie Milburn's record.
Souness is walking a never ending tightrope, seemingly never more than two successive defeats from a crisis. The best he can hope for is to keep his balance for as long as he can, for you get the feeling he will never reach the safety and security of the other side.
The perception of Newcastle as a big club has roots only in its infrastructure and not on the pitch. Sure, they are a big club because they have one of the most devoted and vociferous fan bases in the world. The also have a 55,000 capacity stadium - how can a club with a ground that side be considered anything but big?
Even on the pitch, they have a former great in Alan Shearer, and in Michael Owen they have one of the world's greatest finishers to do Shearer's running for him. Shay Given is still one of the best goalkeepers in the Premiership - Lord knows where they would be but for him.
But what else can you really say about the Newcastle squad? It is far from the quality of the often cited 'Big Four' - Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal.
They have undoubtedly suffered from injuries. Souness was quoted in the Guardian on Wednesday as saying: "If you look at the players we've got available at the moment, that tells you exactly where we are. We have got only two centre-halves and in Titus Bramble one of them is having injections in his groin before he plays."
Ouch. Now, without going all Tony Cascarino on you, I would like to offer up the fact that I played against Titus (first name terms, obviously) several times when we were about ten and eleven, mostly in 5-a-side tournaments. He was stronger than the rest of us, and clearly had undoubted talent.
But what was apparent even then, was that under no circumstances would he pass the ball. He was miles better than anyone else in his team, so why should he? And of course, the games were ten minutes long back then so concentration was not an issue.
There are times when I see him play now when I wonder if he has mentally matured at all. He struggles to pass because he is not used to it, and when you shine for your team in a 10 minute match, an hour and a half can surely seem an unfathomable prospect.
This seems a specious argument from Souness; looking at his squad, Bramble and Jean Alain Boumsong would be his first choice pairing anyway, except for the possible inclusion of Steven Taylor. Craig Moore has only played a handful of games for the club, and is not as high-profile as Bramble and the French Bramble.
Scott Parker and Owen, the latter will surely leave after the World Cup, are admirable additions to the squad. But the lavish signing of Albert Luque has yet to yield anything of note, and an ageing Shearer must be replaced as the fulcrum of the side, record or no record.
It makes little sense to build a side around a player whose career is virtually at an end, and who is increasingly becoming a shadow of the player he was. It is indicative, perhaps, of the power Shearer wields at the club.
It has been rumoured that Freddy Shepherd will call time on Souness if he loses the dressing room, but to be more accurate, that will be the case if he loses Shearer's support.
On the face of it, there was some logic to Souness' appointment. The dressing room was in disarray, and it required someone with a notoriously bullish and no-nonsense approach. The contrast to Sir Bobby Robson could hardly have been greater, and in fairness to Souness, the amount of debauched stories emanating from St James' Park has fallen dramatically during his tenure.
But his results seem to highlight his shortcomings. The team is stuggling for identity - the big teams set out their stall and you know how they are going to play. That is not really the case with Newcastle - they just seem to bounce from one fixture to the next.
Their run of results reads: no win in 5 at the start, then six wins in eight, three successive defeats followed by a draw, back to back wins, and now no win in three. This reads as the definition of mid-table, not of a big club.
The confusing comments attributed to Souness on the same day seem to indicate this lack of identity and direction stems from the manager's office. The club may have got rid of one or two of the bad influences, but a new direction has not been established yet. The decision once again rests with Freddy Shepherd as to whether or not he chooses to give the Scot time to find it.