AUGUST has always marked the start of the shooting season, so perhaps it should be no surprise Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd has made a habit of using the month to fire his managers.

Kenny Dalglish, Ruud Gullit and Sir Bobby Robson all failed to survive to September and, following Saturday's abject goalless draw with West Ham, Graeme Souness is in grave danger of adding his name to the club's roll of dishonour.

With his side booed from the field following their insipid display against a ten-man Hammers outfit hotly-tipped for relegation and fielding a 39-year-old up front, Souness finds himself in arguably a weaker position than any of his three predecessors.

He is unpopular with the club's fans - most of whom were against his appointment in the first place - currently presides over a squad boasting just two fit strikers, one of whom is an increasingly immobile 35, and faces the daunting prospect of games against Bolton and Manchester United within the next six days.

It is hardly a recipe for success and the Scot's confession that Saturday's shot-shy display was "not unexpected" is unlikely to endear him to either Newcastle's increasingly restless fans or their consistently trigger-happy chairman.

Yet, while Souness' sacking offers the prospect of a quick-fix, a cursory examination of the club's recent history suggests it would only serve to make matters worse.

Surely even Shepherd, who is known to be uncomfortable with his reputation as football's August assassin, can see that yet another bout of upheaval and uncertainty would be counter-productive at such a testing time.

After all, with the chairman's intransigence having hindered all of Souness' attempts at squad building this summer, it is difficult to see what difference a new manager would have made on Saturday.

Give Jose Mourinho a starting line-up that includes Alan Shearer as a lone striker, with just James Milner and Charles N'Zogbia to play off him, and a bench that includes two more 30-year-olds in Lee Clark and Robbie Elliott, and let's see how the 'Special One' addresses the Magpies' current malaise.

Souness has undoubtedly contributed to the club's problems - his inability to build bridges with both Craig Bellamy and Laurent Robert could yet be his downfall - but he is not the sole cause of their plight.

For that, Shepherd must also take his share of the blame. Souness gave him a list of transfer targets almost three months ago and, so far, only Scott Parker and Emre have materialised.

The United chairman can claim to be displaying some long-awaited thriftiness following years of over-indulgence in which a succession of managers have made a succession of questionable buys.

But, if that is the case, he cannot expect Souness to carry the can for the utterly unbalanced squad that has resulted. Tellingly, the impromptu demonstration outside the Milburn Stand following the final whistle on Saturday said as much. It was directed at Shepherd, not his equally unpopular manager.

After Newcastle failed to create a single chance of note until Parker blazed over in injury-time, the Magpies chief must realise that his club's chronic shortage of strikers is threatening to scupper everything he is attempting to achieve on Tyneside.

Forget the fanciful pursuit of Michael Owen that has wasted both time and resources this summer, Shepherd now has nine days in which to dig deep for the proven goalscorer that could yet salvage United's season. Souness must help by being realistic in his ambitions.

Albert Luque, who is expected to arrive from Deportivo La Coruna later today in an £8m deal that could also see Hugo Viana move in the opposite direction, is a start, but even Souness admits he is not the goal-getter the club so desperately needs.

That inevitably raises the question of why the manager is so keen to buy him at this time, but both Souness and Shepherd now need to prioritise the capture of a supplementary striker. If that means selling a midfielder to fund the deal - both Jermaine Jenas and Lee Bowyer remain wanted men - so be it.

"Luque is not going to get us 20 goals a season," admitted Souness, who also confirmed that both Kieron Dyer and Emre were likely to miss Wednesday's trip to Bolton. "But he's somebody that creates things and gets his fair share of goals.

"If we managed to land him, that would help us be a better team. But if we can, and if we can afford it, we still need someone who can get us 20 goals.

"I'm like everybody else - I know what we need and I'm praying we can make it happen. I think there's a lot right with our team and, if we got a couple of players in, I think we would be formidable.

"But I'm the manager - I'm not party to our financial situation. That's for the chairman."

It is a question that was being asked with increasing urgency on Saturday night. While Newcastle displayed admirable resilience when controversially reduced to ten men themselves at Arsenal, they suffered from undeniable impotence when West Ham suffered similar misfortune.

Paul Konchesky's 55th-minute dismissal for a perfectly-timed tackle on Jenas, who ironically saw red in eerily similar circumstances six days earlier, should have been the cue for an incessant wave of United attacks.

Instead, it preceded a predictable half-hour of unfocused forays forward and unsuccessful passing moves that floundered through a lack of both numbers and talent in the final third.

With the impressive Anton Ferdinand shackling a strangely listless Shearer, Newcastle craved both width and creativity as West Ham successfully shut up shop.

Tellingly, the home side's most dangerous attacker was the evergreen Clark, who made an emotional return to Tyneside after eight years away following his 63rd-minute introduction for an ineffective N'Zogbia.

The 32-year-old almost scored with his first touch - an instinctive strike that Roy Carroll palmed away - before Bowyer saw his dipping half-volley turned over by the former Manchester United goalkeeper.

Parker went close in stoppage time but, after racing onto Milner's cross from the left, the midfielder could only guide a hastily-hit half-volley over the crossbar.

Anything different would have been harsh on a well-organised Hammers, and merely served to paper over the obvious cracks in the home side.

It is to be hoped those cracks are adequately addressed in the next nine days. Never mind firing, it is time Newcastle turned their hand to some August hiring instead.