I was bored so I checked: "Souness has been awarded a two-year contract with a rolling 12-month deal afterwards. " http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/3651574.stm
a rolling contract ( i.e. a periodic one ) can be implied into a smaller permanent contract upon trying to extinguish it. the effect could mean that in order to dump souness you would need to make a 3/4 year payoff.
he totally lost the respect of the players, and we were doing nothing when he was here, he's a legend i'll agree but no way should we get him back.
