Joey Barton has finally been released from the Merseyside prison where he has been held on assault charges. Assault? Joey Barton? You can’t be serious! Not sweet, innocent Joey. Not the Joey who attacked a FIFTEEN year old in Thailand. I realize that the kid started the fracas, but he was FIFTEEN. He would have been better served letting the police handle the kid that’s just not his style. In May 2005 he ran over a pedestrian, breaking their leg, after an argument with a cabbie. I’m guessing the leg must have deserved it.
Barton has even attacked his own teammates. In 2004 he stubbed out a cigar in youth player Jamie Tandy’s eye. Apparently Tandy had been trying to set Joey’s shirt on fire. In 2007 he sent Ousmane Dabo to the hospital with head injuries including a detached retina after a training ground altercation. If I were a Newcastle player I’d hire a bodyguard.
When will the football community finally get rid of this punk? Oh, he’s got talent, I’ll give him that. But, when a player is a true danger to those around him you don’t reward him with a multimillion pound contract. If he were an average man on the street with multiple assaults on his record, he wouldn’t even be able to be hired as a chimney sweep. Why is Joey Barton different?
