Barton to face punishment.

Joey Barton is believed to have met with John Wardle today and his fate at the club is expected to be announced sometime tomorrow.
According to local reports, Barton will be fined around £20,000 - which is the remaining 'suspended' amount left over from the punishment he received from the Xmas party incident last year, plus ordered to undergo anger management counselling.
Reading some of the message boards there have been calls for his sacking and it was an option I touched on in an earlier column. Although, the club would not have faced again legal problems if they chose that option was this ever a likely option for the club?
Here you have young player, tied to a medium term contract whose value must be at least £3 million. If the club sacked him then his contract would be terminated and he would become a free agent, able to sign for whichever club he wished. Would this be a punishment that would make him sit up and think about what he had done? There would only be one party who would be punished and that is City.
Look at the fuss Chelsea made when Adrian Mutu signed for Juve following his sacking for testing positive for cocaine. There, they had shelled out around £18 million for him and lost him for nothing.
Whilst City did not pay anything for Barton, it would still be a huge loss for the club and a move which does not make any sense, economic or otherwise.
Expect Joey to be wearing the shirt on opening day, but still be feeling the wrath of Stuart Pearce ringing around his ears.