Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Barton's days are numbered

Almost as quickly as the news stories broke yesterday announcing the suspension of Joey Barton came the reports today that Barton has played his last game for the club, with the us offloading him in the summer - with agreement from both Stuart Pearce and the board.

It was stated that Barton has been told to stay away from the club and indeed may even have left the country in the wake of the incident, but most interesting for me was the article that appeared in the MEN today from Chris Bailey.

From what I am aware of how both the MEN and club operate, the article wouldn't have appeared without the club being aware of it, or indeed having 'given the ok' in some capacity. It was a quite a damning article, very critical of Barton's previous misdemeanours and laid the blame for the incident squarely on his shoulders and suggesting that Barton has 'lost' any support from within the dressing room he may have previously had.

Barton has been quiet thus far (even his myspace page remains untouched), leaving all talk to the esteemed Mr McKay, but the PFA (as they are duty bound I guess) have offered their support to him.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of Barton's behaviour (both with this and previous incidents), it does appear that the club is hellbent on showing him the door. If indeed this is the case, it already puts us a step behind in terms of strengthening a squad that is in definite need of reinforcing.

vote it up!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Check out todays Daily Mail online sports page, it has direct quotes from Joey, and an account from an eye witness. Say it aint so Joe,say it aint so.......

Anonymous said...

A balanced article - good for you Danny. Commitment? All our keepers, all our defence. Stevie Ireland in midfield. Mpenza (although he seems to be losing it). Then you've got Sun and Tricky Trev (whose pace seems to be going - sorry). I think Darius is committed, but he loses the plot too often. And you've got Joey. Between him and Dunny-monster, they're the only players we've got who actually care enough to hurt. D'Abo, Trabelsi, Corradi are a waste of space. Dickov cares, but isn't good enough any more. And as for Samaras... Anyone remember Paddy Roach? Docherty tried to back him by saying he would be the goalkeeper at United for as long as he was the manager. Confidence gone, Paddy let in four goals every week for 10 weeks, before Docherty had to drop him. It was the kindest thing he could have done.

Anonymous said...

See D'Abo's claiming that he looked like the Elephant Man this morning. What's new - he looked just like the Elephant Man last time I saw him play.

Anonymous said...

See what the Ferguson comments were?

"We are not being helped by the Premier League making it a 12.45pm kick off, but we will be there on Saturday"

So the rags are actually going to bother to turn up then? Come ON City!! You've played too many like dildoes - for god's sake get it right for this one.