Joey Barton released from prison

[rg6royal]

When will he be back?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manc ... 528581.stm

[Skyline]

Keegan's sticking by him and reckons he'll be back in training by the end of the month.

[readingbedding]

Keegan's got nothing to lose, I would do the same...
But Barton has one aggresive temper.

[rg6royal]

Keegan's got nothing to lose, I would do the same...
But Barton has one aggresive temper.

He's not a half bad player though. Just his attitude and temper lets him down big time. Coppell would never have him!

[papereyes]

What I find (almost) funny is that Newcastle wanted to renegotiate his contract as 'punishment' but three or four clubs enquired about him while he was in jail. Which completely destroys any chance of Newcastle trying to reduce his play as there are still a decent number of clubs willing to take a risk on him, his temper and his behaviour ...

[Bill Oddie's Beard]

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 25,00.html

Could be looking at a ban now, hopefully a nice lengthy one.

[TBM]

What kind of message does this send out to the kids of today?! - its ok you can go beat up somebody and still be a premiership football getting paid thousands of pounds a week

He should be kicked out of football for at least 2 years.

[Toadie]

I can't agree about him being a good player. He would be in my top 5 overrated Premiership players by a long way, possibly even winning it! Distinctly average, and a complete Colin to boot!

[Bill Oddie's Beard]

What kind of message does this send out to the kids of today?! - its ok you can go beat up somebody and still be a premiership football getting paid thousands of pounds a week

He should be kicked out of football for at least 2 years.

He should have been sacked on the spot by City when it happened. But then of course they'd have lost out on a nice £5m transfer fee.

[TheMaraudingDog]

What kind of message does this send out to the kids of today?! - its ok you can go beat up somebody and still be a premiership football getting paid thousands of pounds a week

He should be kicked out of football for at least 2 years.

LOL

I blame Dabo the grass.

[rg6royal]

What kind of message does this send out to the kids of today?! - its ok you can go beat up somebody and still be a premiership football getting paid thousands of pounds a week

He should be kicked out of football for at least 2 years.

'greed

[AbovetheI]

What kind of message does this send out to the kids of today?! - its ok you can go beat up somebody and still be a premiership football getting paid thousands of pounds a week

He should be kicked out of football for at least 2 years.

'greed. Rio Ferdinand can miss a drugs test and get a VERY lengthy ban, yet Barton can slap people about and stub a ciggy out in someones eye. It's disgraceful.

[Dirk Gently]

In an Interview yesterday,

The first day's the toughest, no doubt about it. They march you in, hand you your uniform and force you to pose for the photographer while loads of fat, tattooed, skinheads shout abuse at you. That's when you know it's for real. A whole life blown away in the blink of an eye. Nothing left but all the time in the world to think about it. That's when it hits home.

Is that going to Strangeways or signing for Newcastle?

[Jerry St Clair]

LOL

POTD

[Jerry St Clair]

What kind of message does this send out to the kids of today?! - its ok you can go out in the Ding and beat up somebody and still have a shit job in IT getting paid thousands of pounds a year.

I should have been kicked out of work for at least 2 years.

[papereyes]

I don't think it is football's job to punish him for his actions away from the pitch. Rio's drug test was for, effectively, performance enhancing drugs and he failed to take the test so that is something related to the pitch. Likewise, if Barton's assaults had occured on the pitch, then yes, you'd have a point.

So it is up to the community that is football to 'ban' him by not offering him a contract. Sadly, when a killer drunk driver like Hughes can get back into the game, what's going to happen to someone of Barton's calibre? Newcastle wanted to renegotiate the contract but 3 or 4 clubs were prepared to offer more to take him off their hands. It's not Newcastle's fault alone. It's a good quarter of the Premierleague who are prepared to drop 'ethics' to chase money.

[TBM]

What kind of message does this send out to the kids of today?! - its ok you can go out in the Ding and beat up somebody and still have a shit job in IT getting paid thousands of pounds a year.

I should have been kicked out of work for at least 2 years.

I dont work in IT though

[Ian Royal]

I don't think it is football's job to punish him for his actions away from the pitch. Rio's drug test was for, effectively, performance enhancing drugs and he failed to take the test so that is something related to the pitch. Likewise, if Barton's assaults had occured on the pitch, then yes, you'd have a point.

So it is up to the community that is football to 'ban' him by not offering him a contract. Sadly, when a killer drunk driver like Hughes can get back into the game, what's going to happen to someone of Barton's calibre? Newcastle wanted to renegotiate the contract but 3 or 4 clubs were prepared to offer more to take him off their hands. It's not Newcastle's fault alone. It's a good quarter of the Premierleague who are prepared to drop 'ethics' to chase money.

But his assualt was on a colleague at a training ground. Not during a game, but still during his working hours. As the body responsible for football the FA have a right to take issue with this.
Tbh I think they'd have a right to get stuck in anyway on the grounds of bringing the game into disrepute.

I fully agree that no team should touch him with a barge poll though. I'd expected more from Keegan.

[papereyes]

I got a bit mixed up with my assaults but I'm still uneasy about it. Police should deal with the assault, the club with the disciplinary matter. Certainly the McDs one - it is not the right of the FA to intervene there, imo. The police should, and did, and Newcastle should, but bottled it.

[Skyline]

Now he's being sued by the teammate who's eye he used to stub out a cigar for

major psychiatric deterioration in his health that has destroyed any chance he may have had of playing professional football at a high level.

Can't help thinking this has been prompted by the case of Ben Collett, as discussed here on this very forum.