Despite what the media might be telling you about Newcastle United fans – I don’t care about Joey Barton.
The papers might be able to scare up enough gobby prats to parrot their general sense of outrage but, I repeat, I don’t care.
While I am absolutely sure he is a particularly horrible bloke his presence in my football team doesn’t shame me. I didn’t buy him. His bad behaviour reflects on himself, not the club and certainly not us fans. I would rather not have him in my team but all the various options put up by an apparently furious media make very little sense.
Sack him and we write off £6m while Barton profits from a hefty signing on fee elsewhere. If he shines for his new club and keeps his nose clean they get the kudos for rehabilitating him and his value will once more soar.
Fine him, beyond what is allowed by his Union, and we are on dodgy ground. It’s a legal minefield that could again see him walk away for nothing… join a new club…hefty signing on fee …etc etc.
And that money we’re expected to write off..that’s mine that is. I, alongside thousands of other fans, came up with that cash. We are not Manchester United or Chelsea. Right now, it appears £6m is a great deal of cash for us.
But anyway, hasn’t Barton done his time? Don’t we have some kind of duty to rehabilitate him? Should all ex-cons not be employed? Or just not employed by football clubs?
Or is this part of a wider media agenda – Booze Britain, Broken Britain etc. Let’s get everyone simultaneously outraged AND miserable. Bet they wish he’d had a knife, or was a migrant, or a Muslim. Bet they wish the booze he drank was cheap. Bet they wish they could blame Gordon Brown.
Have they all forgotten Tony Adams already? A player who committed an arguably worse crime and did his time behind bars. He then went on to win silverware galore, captain England and recently won the FA Cup as assistant manager at Portsmouth.
Let’s not also forget that Newcastle’s manger Kevin Keegan wasn’t responsible for signing Barton. It’s yet another problem that he has inherited from the genius he replaced.
KK is keeping his cool and his dignity and is getting Barton back into training and, hopefully, away from whatever demons haunt him.
And no doubt, once Barton is fit and performing well, then real cash offers will once more come in.
Then, and only then, will be the right time to sell him.
* It appears I am not the only one thinking this way. Check out here and here.
4 comments
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July 31, 2008 at 9:03 am
Chris Norton
Hmm, Joey Barton was a good footballer at Man City but I think he still has to perform for the Toon.
I know what you mean when you say it ‘doesn’t reflect on the team’. It won’t unless he does something on the pitch – let’s hope he doesn’t smash anyone’s face in.
I agree with you, they can’t sack him, Newcastle FC need the money at the moment. I just hope that at the third/fourth time of asking Joey will pull himself together and actually concentrate what he was good at – playing football!
He has had several chances before and always seems to revert to type.
If there is anyone who can tame him it’s King Kev.
We will all have to wait and see.
July 31, 2008 at 11:57 am
diehard geordie
First opportunity Kev gets to sell him for £6m or over – he will be gone.
Geordies might be daft – but we are not suckers.
The press never learn do they – but who cares about them these days – they would not see the truth if it jumped up and hit them. They are all too busy writing fiction and not only about footballer’s but politics as well.
July 31, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Mosh
Oh for the ability to write into a contract that should a player bring the club into disrepute that we’d be within our rights to sue *them* for any outstanding balance of the transfer fee and immediately throw them out for someone else to pick up. Oh, and for such actions to be sanctioned, they’d be triggered by the FA banning them from professional football. So nobody else *could* pick them up.
I’m all for rehabilitation etc, but someone with that kind of temper to be earning millions a year is just wrong.
Right now, I’m half-agreeing with you. I’d like to ditch him because I don’t like being associated with him, the same way I didn’t like having Lee Bowyer on the team. Having said that, we paid for them and to chuck them would harm us more than it would harm them.
Sadly, I’d be relying on the FA to come up with a rule allowing them to ban people from football. And given that they reckon Mr Shiniwatra is a fit and sensible enough person to *own* a team, I don’t really have much trust in their judgement.
August 1, 2008 at 8:32 am
diehard geordie
Oh and according to Radio 5 live, the FA are going to ban him for 15 matches – so we have to pay him for doing nothing. So the club gets hammered – if they want to make a point – jurt the players pocket – not the club.
Or have I got it wrong?