ESPN Soccernet - Correspondents - Newcastle United - Barton Parting and I'm Confused

Posted by Marc Duffy on 08/26/2011

I've gone through a wide range of emotions since it was revealed that Joey Barton was on his way down to Loftus Road to discuss terms with newly promoted QPR on Wednesday afternoon. They're still a bit confused, so here we go.....

Anger and (begrudged) understanding.

At first I was furious. Less because we were letting Barton go, more because he is another very good player that we have let go. You could build quite a side from the players that have departed the club during Ashley's quite ridiculous ownership:

Given
Beye
Enrique
Bassong
Faye
Parker
Barton
Milner
Emre
Nolan
Carroll

I'm bound to have missed others and more will follow Barton out of the wide open door - that is guaranteed.

Perhaps the pull of playing alongside Clint Hill, Shaun Derry and One Size Fitz Hall in front of 15,000 at Loftus Road was just too good to turn down? Or maybe it was the passionate home crowd of 4,755 that watched QPR crash out of the league cup vs Rochdale earlier this week? Or maybe it's for security of a long contract. I keep hearing Newcastle supporters questioning his ambition but let's face it, it's hardly Barcelona that he is leaving.

In his defence the club made it painstakingly obvious that he was not wanted - they wanted to GIVE him away to a league rival without even asking for a penny in return. His next contract (the one he just signed at QPR) is his last big contract. It's easy to say "yeah but he should have played out his last year at Newcastle" - what if he opted to do that, broke his leg in January and struggled to find any contract at any club when he recovered? Sure, he's not paid peanuts and probably would be comfortable even if he didn't earn another penny in his life, but in his situation, all things considered, I'd have left too and I'm Newcastle born and bred.

This is when I get even more confused.

Why all the patter from Barton? The 'loving the club' and 'loving the area'? Absolute balderdash (expletives not allowed).

Joey appears to view himself as some sort of revolutionary character. He has vaguely aligned himself with all sorts of revolutionary figures from history over his past few mental Twitter-months. He said no one could force him out and that he would stay and see it through:

"Just because ur told to jump, it does not necessarily mean you have to. I may choose to stand perfectly still. It's my right...just a thought"

What he neglected to add to that was "until any club comes along and offers me some mega wonga".

He quoted Orwell in tweeting "In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act." Hmmmm.

He also tweeted "if only we as players could tell the fans exactly how it is, without them above fining us lots of money. There will be a time and a place."

Well Joey, surely that time and a place is now?

What we will miss is his presence on the football field. Last season we won 34% of the games that he played in and 0% of the games that he missed. The amazing Arsenal comeback was driven by him.

We can't just keep shipping these players out and expect to challenge for anything other than Premier League survival.

Yours,
Confused of Tyneside

You can follow me on Twitter for football chat (and other random nonsense!) @MarcSDuffy

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Comments

Posted by Jinky Jim on 08/26/2011

Your confused ! simple, they all wanted $$$$$$$
apart from Barton he,s just a nutta!

Posted by John on 08/26/2011

Fcb is just happy for the club to keep ticking over as long as the fans are putting bums on seats and buying shirts from his bargain basement sports outlet,he couldn't give a monkey s about challenging Europe or cup runs,Barton the last one of the dressing room clique which the hierarchy wanted broken up or more to the point, one of the last big earners to go apart from smith

Posted by ToonArmySun on 08/26/2011

There's no doubting that QPR are a much smaller club, and there's no doubting Joey actually DOES love the Toon.

The difference is two things. Firstly, we have absolutely no ambition. Even QPR have more ambition than us now, thanks to Ashley. That is a fact. It's not just Barton either. Nolan even dropped down a division because West Ham showed more ambition (and a longer contract) than we did.

The second thing is just that, a longer contract. As much as Joey loved the club, what happened if he broke his leg in the next few months? He'd be finished. Players need the security of a contract, and Joey realised that.

Enrique touched upon it, but I fully expect Barton to go all guns blazing on the nonsense that Ashley and Llambias ruled by. I can only hope.

For those who think Barton's "greedy", was Shay Given? Was Milner? Was Nolan? Was Enrique? Look at the one constant: Mike Ashley.

Posted by Mark Roberts on 08/26/2011

No confusion there Marc...lot's of reason and clarity in your thinking but you have to realise Bartons agent is driven by nothing but money. I actually believe Barton would have preferred to have stayed a toon player and without saying it was begging for Ashley to come in at the last minute to offer a deal...but he was always in a financially driven win-win situation.

If he had stayed he would have gotten a contract extension and if he went on a free he was always going to get massive wages in lieu of the fact he was on a free.

As it's turned out he's got most toon supporters feeling a degree of sympathy for him and he's got a 4 year contract worth 16 million...so who's won.

he and his manager have played it well...he's got a great last big contract but he's playing for QPR so it's not utopia but it's not bad for a scouser scally is it!

Posted by John Bendix on 08/26/2011

The club, like any employer, would have been within its rights to sack him several times over. Few 'normal' employees have their jobs held open for them when they're in prison, for example.

And by all accounts he refused to sign a new contract earlier this year, one day after he'd verblly agreed it. And he criticises the standards and attitudes of Ashley & co!

The way things have panned out, he is indeed a very lucky scouser scally, but more and more he seems to be trying to live up to the image he's now created for himself. It could yet end in tears. Warnock v Barton on a bad day? Who's giving odds, then?

Posted by jimmy3knees on 08/26/2011

"We can't just keep shipping these players out and expect to challenge for anything other than Premier League survival"

...I beg to differ ...there were 11 teams that finished above us in the premier league last season and only one of the players list played for any of those teams with any significance. Bassong- barely gets a game, nor did Given, Carroll? Injured. Parker? Relegated. Only milner has done anything of merit. That's not to claim non of them are any good, but the rest of the premier league didn't seem to miss them last season, so why should we? ....they may take some time to gell, but have u seen the players we're buying? ...it may take time, years in fact, but personally I'm excited, but sick to death of fan negativity. Best fans in the world are we? Then It's about time we stop winning and about 'the club' and show it, especially when results don't go our way ...

Posted by craig on 08/26/2011

well said jimmy3knees, cannot see how bringing in players such as abeid, marvaux, ben arfa and situ can in any way be construed as the club heading in the wrong direction. Of course we need a left back and a new forward as Ba's performance last night was nothing short of frightening, and by that I mean for us and not the opposition. But we need to keep things in context and focus on more of the positives going on at nufc

Posted by azizane on 08/27/2011

one has to consider how our management treated him with such disrespect with the free transfer and everything. No wonder he left... all I can say is good luck Joey and thanks for giving 100% for us when you got the nod

Posted by pdr on 08/28/2011

If Joey Barton wasn't good at football, he'd probably be just another criminal. That being said, I think it puts into focus how the ownership may feel about him. Sometimes being a horrible person works for you, but in the long run you can almost rest assured that there will be some comeuppance, some debt to be paid.

Not to absolve the owner of selling the team off at all. I just don't like Joey Barton and think he's a bad example for the game in general. NUFC has definitely seen some better days.

Posted by Hari on 08/28/2011

I feel ppl r really unfair to Ashley....he always wanted to sell the club but he has pumped in a huge amount of his personal wealth into it.......at the end of the day its his club and he has the final call in deciding what to do

Posted by bigo1723 on 08/29/2011

TFO had it right last week. NUFC keeps shedding players and winning games (or at least points). Ashley is being rewarded for not only getting rid of his better players but also for bringing in replacements who are hardly household names. This is not the way it is supposed to work! Wonder when the roof will cave in?

Posted by Dominique Kee on 09/05/2011

Just a thought guys, don't cruficy me!

I'm a lifelong NUFC fan from Malaysia. I've followed them up and down (literally) and I'm passionate to death about the Magpies.

I'm pretty upset about all the transfer-outs too, but has anyone ever given a thought to the business side of it all? We were heavily in debt before and MA is actually sorting our accounts out, albiet at the sacrifice of splurge spending on new players.

We have a pretty promising but small pool of new signings, all on a shoestring (comnparatively).

Seeing how things are, we can't guarantee success, but it appears that MA is going for sustainability.

Just my 2 cents!

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