Buzzin Football

joey barton

How many last chances can you give a footballer who seems hell bent on self destruction with his attitude both on and off the pitch?

Newcastle manager Alan Shearer was quite rightly infuriated with his combative midfielder Joey Barton following his wild challenge on Xabi Alonso in Sundays 3-0 defeat to Liverpool, that resulted in Barton being shown a straight red card. The player will automatically miss the three remaining games of the season, but also has the threat of a suspended six game ban hanging over his head following the training ground assault of former team mate Ousmane Dabo in 2007.

Shearer was understandably angry with the player who had continued to argue with the Newcastle boss in the changing room and was subsequently fined two weeks wages for his trouble.

Newcastle United have now gone one step further and suspended the hot headed Barton indefinitely, prompting speculation that he may have played his last game for the club. Given his disciplinary record it would seem unlikely that any other club would be interested in signing the player, but of course there are managers out there who would relish having the hard man playing for them, so I doubt we have seen the last of Barton just yet.