Souness was angry with Bellamy's response after substituting the striker in the 1-1 draw at The Valley and is keen to wipe out any dissent in the team ahead of Thursday's UEFA Cup trip to Panionios in Athens.

"I'm angry about it and the reason I'm angry about it is because we're talking about it," said Souness.

"Instead of talking about how gritty and determined we were to get a point on Sunday, instead of talking about how good a goal Craig Bellamy scored, we're talking about him for the wrong reasons, and that has caused us to take our eye off the ball. "Headlines today in the newspaper, headlines yesterday in the newspaper.... I'm a big boy, I've been called a lot worse in the past than he called me, I'll be called a lot worse in the future.

"But it's a fact that that is not helpful for us preparing for football matches - people going out and getting into trouble with the police, people getting their name in the newspaper for the wrong things don't help us achieve what we want to achieve, and that is to be successful here, to try to win something here, so it's going to be addressed."

Souness arrived at St James' Park in September playing down speculation that he would attack any sign of indiscipline in a dressing room which had grown increasingly unruly.

It was widely cited as one of the reasons previous coach Bobby Robson was shown the door.

However, Souness - whose hard-man reputation was honed as a tough-tackling midfielder while he played with Rangers and Scotland - has admitted he knew there was work to be done and he will waste little time in bringing his influence to bear as he builds for the future.

"It can't go on," he said.

"From a football person on the outside looking at this football club before I came here, that was a very obvious problem here, that too many non-footballing stories appeared in the newspapers here.

"That's got to change."