GRAEME SOUNESS: It never fails to amaze me how football mad the city of Newcastle is. It made my job hard but the rewards are massive if a manager can get it right - and the fans will be dancing on the streets if Eddie Howe can end their trophy drought

I only had to step out on to the streets of Newcastle, on any day of the week, to understand the obsession with football and the monumental weight of expectation in that city.

I don’t think there’s a city in the UK where you’d see as many people out wearing the local team’s colours when that team weren’t even playing. It never failed to amaze me.

I was like all the managers before and after me there, thinking, ‘If you get this right, what an amazing football club this could be’, when I took over in 2004.