Joey Barton - The Saviour

Barton Article from MEN

"Were it not for myself, Micah Richards and Richard Dunne the club wouldn't have had Shinawatra, the Premier League and Sven.
"I think they could easily have gone down last season but for a couple of results."

Yep Joey if it hadn't been for a couple of results we would have gone down, those results if you remember correctly Joey were over Christmas, when you where suspended after one of your little petulant strops.

Now go practice trying to beat the first man on corners and stop making your self look a bigger twat than you are.

Barton to face charges?

From bbc.co.uk:

Manchester City footballer Ousmane Dabo has reported
team-mate Joey Barton to police over an alleged attack.
The 30-year-old went
to hospital for treatment for injuries to his eye, nose and lip after an
incident at the club's training ground on Tuesday.
It is understood that
Dabo has asked police to press charges.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) have
confirmed that the incident has been reported to them. Barton has been suspended
by the club.
A spokeswoman said: "Greater Manchester Police has received a
report from a 30-year-old man that he was assaulted.
"Inquiries are
ongoing."

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.

Barton suspended after training ground incident

As mentioned by Brian previously today, Joey Barton has indeed been suspended by the club for the remainder of the season according to nearly all news services. The official club announcement merely refers to 'a player', but remarks from Willie McKay confirm Barton is the suspended player.

Hardly great timing is it, but in truth could there ever be for an incident such as this. Without the facts (which will no doubt emerge), it is difficult to say exactly what happened and who was at fault (I see McKay stated Barton was only 'defending himself'), but the facts as they are currently is that Barton has been suspended following a training ground incident, an incident deemed serious enough not to try and brush under the carpet as 'one of those things' and serious enough to warrant an immediate suspension without the need for a ful, drawn out investigation.

Seemingly, it would be logical to suggest that the incident stemmed from Barton's recent comments following the Watford game (Dabo is of course one of the players brought in last summer who Barton tagged as 'not being good enough'), and indeed even Barton's missed penalty on Saturday.

What Dabo's role in this is we don't know, and he may himself face further action down the line, but it does seem that Barton is clearly a frustrated individual at the moment and how spontaneous todays incident was is again something that may be revealed over the next few days.

Talk of Barton's sale/sacking as has been mentioned is extremely premature at this stage, but if Barton does feel he is the victim in all of this, we will undoubtedly have one unhappy player on our hands as we head towards another frustrating seasons end.

The press have been feasting on this story so far and a selection of the reports is as follows:

The Times: Is Barton's City career over?
The Mail: Barton's roll of shame
Sky Sports: Barton named as banned star
Reuters: City suspend Barton for rest of season
The Guardian: City suspend Barton for remainder of the season