SOUNESS WANTED TO BEAT ME UP... BUT I OWE HIM

GRAEME Souness turned around in the front seat of the car and looked at me. ‘If I ever have to come to a police station again because you have stepped out of line,’ he said, ‘I will beat you up.’ I kept my mouth shut. He wasn’t messing around. He was serious.

My first real dealings with my new manager in 2004 were hardly ideal. There had been pictures in a newspaper that appeared to show me doing up my flies in the street after a night out. I was accused of urinating in public and was told I had to report to a police station

Souness said he was coming with me. My heart sank. We were ushered into an interview room where two officers were waiting it.

wasn’t the best way to make a good impression with the new boss. The claims were absurd. They said they had CCTV footage. I told him it was complete nonsense and to charge me or stop wasting everybody’s time. Souness just sat there and listened.

When we left the police station, we walked back to the car in silence. By the time we got back to the training ground, he was in a filthy mood. He called a meeting. ‘When I was on the outside, looking at this football club,’ Souness said, ‘I saw a very talented team, but people who are out of control and think they are above the law.

‘Let’s take a typical week since I have been Newcastle manager.’ He looked at me. ‘I have just been to the police station with this little p **** ,’ he said. ‘It’s probably normal for him to be back and forth to the police station all the time, but it’s not normal for me.’

Souness was actually really good for me. The season I had with him was the best football I played. I think it was because I feared the man. You couldn’t slack off. I owed him a lot. I liked his style.

Adapted from Old Too Soon, Smart Too Late: My Story by Kieron Dyer with Oliver Holt, published on February 22,