GRAEME Souness has drawn up a list of players he wants to move on this summer but, in a tacit acceptance of the spoiled goods he presides over at St James' Park, the Newcastle manager last night admitted that he could be welcoming them back to pre-season training anyway.

With Newcastle's players due to reconvene on July 2 before kicking off their Intertoto Cup campaign at the third-round stage, Souness is expected to waste no time in remoulding his squad.

But, while he would love to ditch at least five senior professionals this summer, a combination of tarnished reputation and substantial wage demands means his task is far from as simple as that.

Laurent Robert's impromptu striptease in front of the Newcastle fans suggests he knows his future lies away from Tyneside - a claim that was given even greater substance when he mouthed "That's me finished at Newcastle" to the waiting press after the game.

Patrick Kluivert, Craig Bellamy and Hugo Viana are also expected to fly the Magpies' nest this summer, with Nicky Butt's future extremely uncertain given his recent poor form.

But, much as he would love to make wholesale changes in the next two months, Souness has accepted that he will not be allowed to write off millions of pounds if opposition clubs are unwilling to match Newcastle's valuation of their unwanted assets.

"I wouldn't speculate on who's coming and who's going," said the Magpies manager. "Obviously, there are people we would like to cash in on but we have to find a buyer for them.

"If people do not value them as highly as we do, they will still be here next year.

"Likewise, the kind of players we want to buy are players who are top players at big clubs at the moment. Those clubs will not want to sell their players.

"We could end up with a lot of new faces or no new faces, but I can't answer that now.

"I can't comment on who is going and I can't comment on who we are going to bring in - it wouldn't be fair. All I would say is that there is an interesting summer ahead."

That summer begins today but, while Souness will be doing all he can to assemble his new squad before the start of pre-season training, he will be buying and selling right up to the start of the new Premiership season on August 13.

"In an ideal world, I'd like to have all my signings here for the start of pre-season," he confirmed. "But we don't live in an ideal world.

"Hopefully we've got some of them in, but I wouldn't expect us to have all of them in at that stage.

"I think the nearer you get to the first day of pre-season, the more activity there is.

"There'll be a flourish between now and the first day of most people's pre-season."

Yesterday's 1-1 draw with champions Chelsea ensured Newcastle would finish lower down the Premiership table than ever before.

But, while Jose Mourinho can rightly look back on a season of unprecedented achievement, Souness feels he has learned more than his Portuguese counterpart during his eight months at the helm.

"What has Jose learned about his squad this year?" he asked. "It's been a high from day one - the only criticism they got was early on when they kept on winning 1-0.

"It's been one high after another. What I've learned from my time at this club is how people react when the pressure is on, who's with me, who might be with me, and who is not with me.

"It's been a very interesting learning curve, although one which I hope I never have to repeat and one which I've not particularly enjoyed having to deal with. But I think that's Newcastle United.

"I think the staff and the players are now far clearer in terms of what our aims are and what I expect from them than we were seven months ago."

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