Graeme Souness accuses player of 'feigning injury' before Arsenal vs Newcastle game

Souness managed 83 games in a three-year spell at the Toon in the early noughties.

His record was an unspectacular one - he won just 36 games for a win percentage of just 43 per cent - and has revealed all on his time in charge in his new book which is being serialised in The Times.

In the first extract, Souness takes aim at bad-boy Bellamy and reveals all on an incident that led to him leaving the club.

Souness wrote: "Craig feigned injury before a game against Arsenal in 2005, which was very disappointing and led to him leaving the club.

"I wanted him to play wide in that game, but he wanted to play as a central striker. As I came out for a training session before the game, he was walking off past me, so I asked him what was wrong.

"He said he was feeling tightness in his calf or hamstring. Later, when I saw Dean Saunders, my assistant, he said the senior players had told him that Craig had told them he was going to feign an injury.

"I confronted Craig and took him to see Freddy Shepherd, and in the end he admitted he was feigning injury.

"Bellamy would later say that while he admitted his intention to feign injury he had not gone through with it.

"The previous October, not long after I had taken charge, he swore at me after being substituted in a draw at Charlton. He looked up towards me and called me an "effing prick" as he came off and the cameras and microphones caught him doing so.

"At our next team meeting, he was sitting in the front row and, as I was talking, he kept shaking his head. "What is it that you are not agreeing with?" I said, and before he could answer me, I added: "Can we just go back over the past seven days of your life? You have told John Toshack he's not getting the best from you with Wales, because he's not using you in the correct position.

"You have told our chairman that St James' Park doesn't suit Craig Bellamy and then on Saturday you called me an effing prick."