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Shady’s Back, It’s Joey Barton

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If I can ask you all to give a big ‘Why Aye’ to our visitors for the weekend as the Geordies are coming down to the football capital of the world; Manchester.

Newcastle – famous for great pairs; Ant and Dec, Jimmy Nail and Tim Healey, and Cheryl Cole – will find a few thousand of their residents making the 23 mile journey down to Eastlands this weekend, bringing Mr Controversial with them! Guess whose back? Back again? Shady’s bac? no – Joey’s back! Yes Joey Barton is back and back with a bang. He is bound to have some stick hurled at him.

The fans, thee fans, us fans are split as whether to cheer or boo after his career at City was such a controversial one ,so I thought I’d confuse you all a little bit more by delving into his past.

He spends his days at Newcastle United as number seven nowadays, however for a decade he spent his time in the wonderful home of Manchester City as the number 41 and 8.

Name: Joseph Anthony Barton
DOB: 21/09/82
Height: 5 foot 11
Clubs: Manchester City (debut in 2002)
2007-present -Newcastle United
Stats at Man City: 153 Apps. 17 goals. 39 bookings and 3 red cards.

Did you know he is the Patron of the Tamsin Gulvin Fund- charity for people with no financial support?

England: 1 cap and 2 for U-21s.

Joey grew up in a hard-working family which he is very proud of and tells us all in numerous interviews that he is proud of it. His father was a roofer who he lived with since 14 (and with his gran who was an ‘inspiration to him’ throughout his childhood) as he had split from his mother. Barton has said in an interview that he wouldn’t have stayed from drugs and gangs if he had lived with his mother.

His dad inspired him as he spent so long at work and never stopped. His half-brother however, is far from inspiration; serving a life sentence for murder.

Barton joined City in 1997 after being let go by Everton as a young boy and from there he made his debut in the 2002/03 season for City. In November 2002 he was supposed to make his debut for the blues against Middlesbrough however he couldn’t find his shirt after leaving it on the bench at half time. Kevin Keegan said after the game, ‘He should know better coming from Liverpool.’ However, he finally made his first start against Bolton on the 5th April 2003 in a 2-0 loss at the Reebok stadium and his first goal was against Spurs in a 2-0 win for an Easter treat on Good Friday 2003.

His game changed from a defensive player to an attack minded player throughout the seasons as in the 04/05 season he was the 10th best tackler in the Premier League and by the 06/07 season he was City’s top goal scorer.

Also in the 2003/04 season he was voted City’s young player of the year by the fans as throughout the years he became a fan favourite by always put in 100% and you could never doubt that and with his famous quotes coming out all the time – he never seemed to call us fans, instead praising us – even when leaving for Newcastle. Are you considering cheering now? Don’t make your mind up too soon, he has his moments.

His first red card for the club was celebrated with joy and elation…45 minutes after it occurred. It was the 4th February 2004 and City were 3-0 down at half time in an FA Cup tie against Tottenham at White Hart Lane, when Joey Barton was sent off after the half time whistle for arguing with the referee.

Things were looking bleak. Things were about to change…why am I telling you this? You all know what happens next! City score. City score again. And like a brothel on a Friday evening, we score once more!

And…yet again…on the last minute. It’s that game that you will tell your children before bedtime before the Hare and the Tortoise, and after Cinderella – it’s the cockney comeback, winning 4-3, a game to remember, a game we do remember and a game we will always remember as we turn over the enemy – thanks Joey – not a bad way to be sent off ay?

Controversy wasn’t far away though; do not worry my dear friends as on the 17th April 2004 Joey had a liccle wiccle stroppy poo as he wasn’t a happy camper after being dropped for the game against Southampton. Joey grabbed his handbag from the dressing room peg, shook his head and walked out; not letting the door hit his arse on the way out. His card was marked – his card that was always increasing in size.

Joseph was at it once more on the 25th July as in pre-season he casually lead us all into a mass brawl against Doncaster Rovers and made King Kevin blast him for it after the draw. I do like a little headline grabber, but that was just a minor mass brawl for our good old Joey.

Something a lot more serious occurred however over the festive period as at a City’s Christmas party in a nightclub, Barton, dressed up as Jimmy Saville at the time, found himself stubbing a cigar in the eye of reserve Jamie Tandy, 18. Now then, now then, Joey did this because he turned around to find Jamie was just casually…setting fire to Joey’s shirt.

There was no secret around the club at the time that the two weren’t the greatest of pals as they both took the Scousse vs Manc war very personally. Jamie later sued Joey for £65,000.

Jamie Tandy has said in interviews since that he had to dig ash out of his eyes with his hands and then went to jump on Barton for body guards to get hold of him and through him out whilst Joey continued to party. Tandy has also said that it was this that leads to problems like depression and becoming an alcoholic.

He has recently gone to court after beating his girlfriend, drunk, and got off with a suspended sentence as the judge said his ‘hope and dreams were taken away’ after the nightclub incident with Barton and being released by City in 2005. Since then Tandy’s career went downhill as he couldn’t find work, became a window cleaner, faced debts up to £30,000 and tried to commit suicide at one stage.

In court it was said that Tandy had broken his girlfriend’s nose whilst their daughter, 2, was sat on her lap. The court also heard that he pulled out a clump of her hair out and slashed her neck with a fork. Unfair to say this was all Joeys fault in my opinion, especially as the club kept them both on – letting Jamie go 6 months later due to injury.

On the 25th May 2005 Barton found himself in another, yes another, problem as he ran over a 35 year old pedestrian to break his leg at 2AM in the morning in Liverpool city centre.

In the pre-season of 2005 City found themselves globetrotting out of sunny Manchester and into Thailand where Joey was involved in an altercation. He was sent home after he had hit a fifteen year old Everton fan who had called and kicked Joey.

He was held back by Captain Richard Dunne in the club hotel from doing further harm and was later fined £120000 by the club and was forced, early in the season, to go on an anger management course.

On the 30th September 2006 City played Everton – Joey’s boyhood team – and after City scored the equaliser late on in the game the team celebrated in normal fashion, they hugged, they cheered, they punched the air and they released their shorts to show the Everton fans their derriere, their bottom, their bum bum, their hole of glory, their excretion pit of doom!!! Yes, Joseph Barton showed the Everton fans his bottom -such a nice man. The TV cameras spotted his cheeky reveal to be fined £2000.

With the controversy and the problems and the blablalala, Joey found himself jumping for joy as he was called up for England. Surely he couldn’t add controversy to a simple call up to his national side? Well you don’t know our Joey very well do you? Of course he did. Just a tad before being called up, Mr Barton decided to make one of his famous quotes.

The game was a friendly against Spain in the midst of the qualifying for the 2008 euro under Steve wally McLaren (We all know how well that went) and Joey made comments about the England team, particularly Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard: ‘England did nothing in that World Cup (2006) so why were they bringing books out? ‘We got beat in the quarter finals. I played like sh*t. here’s my book’ who wants to read about that?

After saying this and then being picked, captain of the team, Stephen Gerrard, had to clear the air. ‘I know Joey very well; I just smiled to myself when I saw the squad announced. He is a friend of mine and there are no hard feelings. Myself, Frank and Joey will be having a lot of chats over the next couple of days. I’m sure we can put it to bed.’ Very professional Stephen, and very seriously handled. He also added that he left a signed copy of his autobiography outside Barton’s room. Sure Joey was best pleased but a nice touch from Stephen.

Barton also said; ‘If there were two balls on the pitch, England would be successful but the fact is it’s been proven they (Lampard and Gerrard) don’t work well together’, which had upset Lampard, however it was all left behind as Joey made his appearance – 78 minutes into the match subbed on for Frank Lampard himself. The game was lost 1-0 though against the Euro 2008 winners and now the World Cup 2010 winners.

The end of the 2006/07 season was a bad period in Joey Barton’s career and it ended his City career. On the 21st April 2007 he made comments about City, saying the club deserves to be at the highest level and the fans deserve better. ‘If I was a fan I wouldn’t have paid to watch us at home this season. They go out and work hard. It is a lot of money to buy a season ticket at our place and they are not getting value for money.’ He then had a blast at the summer buys, ‘You have to face the facts; we have not brought quality in. One or two have done all right but not enough to take the team to the next level. We can’t gamble on players who have scored six goals in six games in the Pontins League or in Belgium.’

Barton was banned from talking to the press from then on by Pearce and he seemed to have lost the respect of his team which became apparent when him and Ousmane Dabo had a bust up and finally stabbed the last nail in the coffin of Barton at Manchester City.

The training ground can become a heated place, whether it is a crushing tackle or a little disagreement or a controversial jog back from the cones; however Dabo and Barton took this a little too far!

In flew Barton on Dabo to be followed by Dabo flying in on Barton to be followed once more by Barton on Dabo. That was the final straw as up stepped the Frenchman and up stepped the Englishman as the engaged in battle…well Barton walloped Dabo a few times and gave Dabo a head injury. Dabo went off to hospital, and to later press charges. Barton was fined a great sum of around £100,000 and suspended for the rest of the season (including the derby at the weekend upcoming).

On the 14th June 2007, for £5.8Million (after a lot of negotiations) Joey Barton ended his love affair with City and left for Newcastle United where he thought he would have ‘a better chance of winning trophies’ under Sam Allardyce. Well, he won the Coca Cola Championship, didn’t you Joseph?

At Newcastle he found himself plagued with injury, having to wait till 22nd October for his debut and then a few games in he found himself in a spot of bother to prove it wasn’t just City he liked to grab the headlines with as he came diving in on ex-fellow City academy player – Dickson Etuhu in the Tyne-wear derby.

The referee saw this so he got away with it but it didn’t stop the news of the world as their back page headline was: BAN HIM!

On Boxing Day of 2007 Barton found himself in the spotlight again in a horrific way as he was caught on CCTV attacking a man outside of McDonalds, heavily drunk, in Liverpool City centre. After a few altercations with many people Barton then began to hit two men 20 times as his cousin and brother, Nadine and Andrew Barton threw food at them on the floor as he pinned one man down.

20th May 2008 Barton went to court over this charge and was sentenced to six months imprisonment for common assault and affray.

During this time on 1st July 2008, he also went to court on the Dabo charge to a 4 month suspended sentence and community service.

Under Kinnear, he underwent a six game ban for the Dabo charge but when he came back he delved into the pot of lovely ‘Barton ways’ once more as he appeared to flick Agbonlohor in the game against Aston Villa, which tempted the FA to maybe give him another ban, however they didn’t, but then had to seriously consider it when it was suggested he made a racist remark – which was later proved wrong.

He seemed to put his head down from then on. HA! Sorry, thought I’d tease you, he found himself having a go at Premier League legend Alan Shearer – good old Joey ay.

On 3rd May Barton came back to football from injury with Newcastle and Shearer as manager when he delved into Xabi Alonso to be sent off, so was suspended for the rest of the season when Shearer lost his temper.

In the changing room Shearer called Barton’s tackle a ‘cowards tackle’ and that he thought it was a mistake putting him back in the team, which Barton replied with that he was ‘the best player at the club and Shearer had to play him’, in which Alan Shearer replied ever so courteous with …‘You’re sh*t’ and Barton in his usual polite manner replied ‘you’re a sh*t manager with sh*t tactics in which Iain Dowey got involved – to sit back down after being called a “pr*ck’…at least Barton was accurate with that one.

Somehow? Barton got to stay at Newcastle and since then…seriously, he has stayed relatively quiet. Or paid the press to not tell us anything.

This season – Barton’s Games:

Man United 3-0 Newcastle (yellow carded), Newcastle 6-0 Aston Villa (yellow carded and scored a beauty from 25 yards), Wolves 1-1 Newcastle (applauded by professionals as it seemed he was targeted by wolves with tackles flying in everywhere – no retaliation), Newcastle 0-2 Blackpool, Everton 0-1 Newcastle (no bottom was shown), Chelsea 3-4 Newcastle (fantastic game to remember as it went from a 1-0 lead to Chelsea to a 3-1 lead to Newcastle to a 3-3 score line and a last minute winner from Ameobi), Newcastle 1-2 Stoke.

Will I be cheering? After all he did for us back in the day; I will be applauding our Joey, however of course I am not condoning all that he did with his controversial moments. Just wonder what his celebration would be if he scored.

Bundo, over and out.

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