Toon Army Want Souness To Pay Up

Last updated : 31 January 2007 By Footy Mad - Editor

When Souness was at St James' Park he defended his signing, and promised the Toon Army Boumsong would be a star of the 2006 World Cup ... or he would buy us all a meal! And what happened? The bugger got the sack and 52,000 Newcastle fans got nowt!

But life is a lot better for the Boumsong in Italy ... but let's be honest ... Serie B is hardly the cutting edge of European football. However, Juventus coach Didier Deschamps wants to tie down Jean Alain Boumsong for next season's return to Serie A.

The France international was in the press in the last week saying "it's promotion or else", and although Juve are challenging for promotion, they suffered defeat last week.

Deschamps: "Boumsong is a major part of my plans".

Juventus suffered their first Serie B defeat of the season after losing 1-0 at fellow promotion hopefuls Mantova.

An own goal by Robert Kovac seven minutes into the second half was enough for Mantova - facing Juve for the first time in 34 years - to claim three precious points and leapfrog the fallen Turin giants in the table.

Alessandro Del Piero almost snatched a dramatic equaliser in the fourth minute of stoppage time, but his toe-poked shot sailed narrowly wide.