Comment, by ANDY NEILD. . .

GRAEME Souness's decision to quit Blackburn Rovers for Newcastle United came like a bolt out of the blue yesterday morning.

But for those who really know him, it's been obvious for some time that Souness was beginning to get itchy feet following his four rollercoaster years as manager at Ewood Park.

A lack of spending power in the transfer market, coupled with a string of fall-outs in the dressing room, were beginning to take their toll on a man who has spent most of his career taking on the big boys.

I got a glimpse of his growing sense of frustration during a telephone call in the height of the summer.

After narrowly escaping relegation from the Premiership last season, Souness felt a wave of new signings was needed to add more strength and depth to a squad which was thin on quality.

However, the cash required for the rebuilding job was not forthcoming due to the financial constraints of the new Blackburn and Souness launched a thinly veiled attack on the board through the columns of this very newspaper, in which he bemoaned the club's lack of spending power.

Then came yet more public bust-ups with Andy Cole and Garry Flitcroft, the latter acrimoniously dumped as captain for what Souness saw as a breach of club discipline at the end of last season.

And the strain of trying to keep an increasingly fractious dressing room together was clearly beginning to weigh heavily on a man who's used to success at the very highest level.

There was a growing sense - inside and outside the club - that Souness had maybe taken Rovers as far as he could on the resources available and I began to get the distinct impression that the manager himself even realised that too.

Souness is probably honest enough to admit that he's a cheque book manager who thrives off the buying and selling of players.

When he has a problem, his solution is to throw money at it and for the best part of three years at Rovers he enjoyed incredible success by doing exactly that.

But once the money started drying up, he became increasingly frustrated and bad signings were beginning to far outweigh the good.

Inevitably, results began to suffer as a consequence and Souness probably jumped ship in the end before he was pushed.

However, Rovers fans should always be indebted to the fiercely passionate Scot for putting the pride back into their football club.

When he was appointed in March 2000, he took charge of a side that was languishing deep in First Division mediocrity but he dragged them up by the bootlaces and managed to transform Rovers into a top six Premier League force.

It was a memorable journey but every manager has a shelf-life at a club and maybe it was time for a change all round.