There were a lot of misgivings from Newcastle fans back in the summer of 2007 after Sam Allardyce was signed on in mid June of that year by Chairman Freddie Shepherd replacing Glenn Roeder when his first signing was Joey Barton from Manchester City.
Joey had been in trouble for an incident during training earlier that year at Manchster City when he assaulted his team-mate Ousmane Dabo and left him unconscious.
Joey Barton in his early career at Newcastle
The Manchester City manager Stuart Pearce couldn´t get rid of him quickly enough in the summer and there were misgivings when he arrived on Tyneside for £5.8M.
In the lead in to the derby game at Sunderland on Sunday former Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce has talked about his brief eight months in charge at Newcastle and how it was a mistake to have signed Joey.
Mike Ashley bought the club that summer by buying shares from Sir John Hall and Freddie Shepherd and brought in Chris Mort as the Chairman in August to replace Shepherd.
Having bought the club quickly, Ashley didn´t do the usual rigorous due diligence work and subsequently found out the club owed £100M – and basically Ashley gave out an interest free loan to save on the interest payments.
We found out Newcastle paid for their players in yearly installments then and that we were still paying off the transfer fees on some players who had long since left the club.
This is some of what Sam Allardyce wrote in his new book about Barton:
“I also signed Joey Barton from Man City who I thought would liven things up, which he did, though not in a good way.
“Joey had a three amp fuse in a 13 amp plug and could blow any time anywhere.”“You couldn’t read him.”
“He got injured not long after joining and went into decline and was then arrested for assault at Christmas, having asked permission to go home to Liverpool because his Nan was ill.”
“He was subsequently sentenced to six months in prison.” “Barton was the loosest of cannons.”
“A few years later, Kevin Nolan reckoned he tamed him once he joined Newcastle and tried to get me to take him to West Ham, but I wasn’t interested.”
When Joey Barton was in jail there were attempts to end his contract at Newcastle and in any usual business he would have been fired.
But we learned that football is anything but a normal business and Joey stayed on and over the last couple of years at Newcastle he played well for us and was an asset, although he was injured for much of our promotion season.
But then after he criticised the club for selling Kevin Nolan in the summer of 2011 he was allowed to leave for nothing, even though he had one year left on his contract.
He ended up signing a lucrative four year contract at QPR as a free agent in August 2011.
Comments welcome.
10 comments so far
Laurent Robert 32
Oct 22, 2015 at 8:31 AM
Comment #1For all his misdemeanors, he also played very, very well for quite a long period of time. Helped Nolan lead from the front on the pitch, worked hard and showed spirit. He also has a good level of crossing ability which is sometimes undervalued.
catchy in norway
Oct 22, 2015 at 8:34 AM
Comment #2Lr32
I think he did very well for us. We need big players like him now
cyprus
Oct 22, 2015 at 8:36 AM
Comment #3It’s generally not as simple as that Ed, even outside of football. e.g.
http://hub.unlock.org.uk/knowledgebase/convictions-employment-law-2/
Laurent Robert 32
Oct 22, 2015 at 8:37 AM
Comment #4Me too, Catchy, minus the bad parts.
firebug666
Oct 22, 2015 at 8:40 AM
Comment #5Fat Sam was probably afraid Joey would kick his heed in. The lad did really well for us, he repaid the loyalty the club showed in bringing him back in after his spell in the nick.
One thing I always admired about Joey is he never disrespected our fans, even though he fell out with the club, and after he left he always spoke highly of our fans.
He may be a scouse but his blood must be black and white.
Wish we had some more like him here now.
Lilongwe Geordie
Oct 22, 2015 at 8:44 AM
Comment #6Agreed with most on Joey. Even now I would have liked us to bring him in through the summer to bolster the midfield and add a bit of bite and character to the squad.
He has a better range of passing then Colback, Tiote, Anita Goofy(?) will get stuck in and attempt to drive the team forward when heads are down.
He is exactly the sort of player(s) we need to be looking at to bolster the mental fragility and confidence that the squad seems to have.
Bambams
Oct 22, 2015 at 8:44 AM
Comment #7I must admit I am so relieved we got goals and points at the weekend. I just hope the likes of Sissoko Colo Colback Wini and Elliott perform. I genuinely believe the two youngins up front will cause them problems with their movement.
Just sick of watching the last few derbies where some of our players did not seem to be bothered.
Tiote cannot start for me, we need 11 on the pitch.
It’s our lack of height at the back ALWAYS cost us.
I will be recording the game and watching it after work, I will know the score….impossible these days to do a ‘Likely Lads’ ….
Toon-Prodigy
Oct 22, 2015 at 8:46 AM
Comment #8I see Sam has let people in on his transfer wish list at NUFC.
He wanted Modric, Jagielka and baines but he was given Beye, Enrique and Faye on the last day of the window.
lesh
Oct 22, 2015 at 9:28 AM
Comment #9Catchy
We could also do with Nolan or a Nolan-type character to inject some spirit when players’ heads go down.
BeeGuy
Oct 22, 2015 at 12:50 PM
Comment #10NUFC would never have come back from 4 down to Arsenal without Barton. He may be past his EPL days, but the man who made it happen along with Barton, Nile Ranger, is out there looking for work.