GRAEME SOUNESS has pledged he will continue to tackle head on the off-field problems which have plagued his first season in charge at St James' Park, with the Newcastle boss expected to draw up an end of season code of conduct in a bid to keep his errant stars in line.

The Scot takes his side to Old Trafford tomorrow in a replay of last Sunday's FA Cup semi-final, but he has already begun preparations for next season following their elimination from both the FA and UEFA Cups.

With the last ten days ending any hopes of bringing the silverware the fans crave to St James Park, Souness finds himself picking up the pieces after another season of under achievement.

Three weeks ago a beaming manager was joined by his chairman, Freddy Shepherd, and his skipper to announce they had pulled off a major coup in persuading Alan Shearer to stay on for another season.

Since then the Magpies have seen two of their midfielders, Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer, fight each other on the pitch, have been dumped out of two Cups, lost three Premiership games to end any hopes of claiming a UEFA Cup spot through the league, and seen their manager have a very public spat with his most creative player, Laurent Robert.

That followed Souness rows with Craig Bellamy - farmed out on loan to Celtic - the manager marching Kieron Dyer down to a central Newcastle police station after the midfielder urinated in the street, and cancelling the players' Christmas party in Edinburgh which he felt was inappropriate.

Having already told the players formally what he expects when he arrived last September, Souness again finds himself in charge of a club lurching from one controversy to the next.

"My time at this football club, the last six months, can be summed up in few sentences," said Souness who yesterday saw Bowyer have his four game ban extended to seven by the football association.

"We had a good start, we lost a few key players, our results dipped, we got them back just before Christmas, we made a couple of good signings, go on another good run, we come to the crunch, and we're hit by injuries and suspensions, we run out of players and they dip again!

"That's from the football side. How do we address that?

"We address that by getting more good players and getting a bigger squad and hopefully, hopefully introduce things next year to eliminate the controversy that has followed us this year.

"I'm not going to tell you (how he plans to eliminate controversy), but we will be looking at things closely, because it's something we have to address."

Souness, hoping to avoid a repeat of last weekend's 4-1 defeat against Manchester United tomorrow, also warned his players that they will never achieve anything at Newcastle if the club continues to be dogged by negative stories.

And, in a repeat of Sir Bobby Robson likening being manager of Newcastle United to working as a firefighter continually extinguishing the flames of controversy, Souness admitted the off-field problems at St James' Park are a weekly occurrence.

"That's (controversy) something that's never far away from big clubs, but we seem to have more than our fair share of it.

"I wish we were just talking about footballing matters. There's no rocket science in football.

"The supporters don't want to hear about it (non-footballing matters). They only want to hear about football stories and that's what we're going to give them. And hopefully good stories.

"I think it's been a sharp learning curve for me. I've been in the business for 37 years and there have been a few firsts for me and I've been at it a long time.

"I've learned a great deal in a short space of time, which will only stand us in good stead.

"Things seem to happen every week. It's been a tough run, but we'll learn from it.

"It's not sustainable. You're never going to achieve success are you - never - if you're constantly dogged by the things we've been dogged with.

"I don't know what it's been like before, but it's been interesting.

"As a manager, you try to eliminate everything that can possibly take the players' eyes off the ball.

"That's been nearly a job I've had to tackle every week, trying to eliminate problems before they become bigger problems that cause people to take their eyes off the challenge of winning football matches.

"And that has to end. That has to end and we will end it. Whether that's because of things we introduce or bringing in different personnel I don't know, but it has to end.

"I'm Scottish and we have a trait of shooting ourselves in the foot and I think we've been guilty, certainly in my time here, of the same, allowing ourselves to concentrate on things other than football.

"A lot of clubs would be happy to get to semis of FA Cup and quarters of the UEFA Cup. But I'm not happy with that. and I don't think it's been an easy season for the players.

"We've had 19 cup games. Hopefully next season we'll have more players. It's a unique club, most certainly.

"I would suggest that if it's (controversy) to continue, we have no chance of being successful. That is a major issue for me. I think that's one of the reasons I was given the job.

"I think the chairman knew that had to be addressed and I think anybody would tell you that if we can't control that, we'll never be successful.

"It doesn't happen anywhere else, consistently. We have to address some of the problems we have and we will.