WELL-INFORMED punters who bet on Graeme Souness to take over as Newcastle United manager caught the bookies napping.

While the appointment took newspapers by surprise, it seems some fans had their ears closer to the ground.

The Blackburn Rovers manager emerged from virtually nowhere as a possible successor to Sir Bobby Robson as late as Sunday.

Bookmaker Reuben Page took a number of bets on Souness, at odds of 14-1, at its 34 shops round the North-East, on Sunday.

It brought the former Middlesbrough midfield star, a relative outsider initially at 33-1, in to odds-on favourite by opening of trading yesterday, shortly before the appointment was announced.

Austin Carney, co-owner of Reuben Page, said in the end only the appointment of Celtic manager Martin O'Neill by United would have proved more costly to the firm.

Mr Carney said last night: "There were a number of obviously well-informed bets at 14-1 on Sunday, and so he quickly went to odds on this morning as it appears that word was out.

"We still had a bit of a run on Martin O'Neill this morning on the basis that it was thought Souness was leaving Blackburn to go to Celtic to replace O'Neill, who would be coming to Newcastle.

"Obviously, not everyone was in the know, as we also took a £100 bet on Peter Beardsley this morning, at 50-1."

He added: "We haven't tallied it all up yet, but the interest has been very high and we've probably taken over five-figures on this one just at our shops alone."

And Mr Carney was yesterday already starting to respond to telephone queries yabout bets on Souness's successor at Blackburn.