Football Food For Thought / Dave Farrar / 06 May 2009 /

As Joey Barton committed the latest indiscretion of a career plagued by problems on and off the field, Dave Farrar ponders on how the footballing world should go about treating him and why the incident may end up doing Newcastle a world of good.

So Newcastle are trading at [1.63] to be relegated, and they face pretty much the game of all games from a North East perspective on Monday night against Middlesborough.

Interestingly enough, despite defending atrociously against Liverpool on Sunday, Alan Shearer's team have drifted from the [1.55] at which they were available before the weekend's games, a direct result of the inability of all of the teams around them to pick up any points, and there is some justifiable hope for their fans, who I happen to think are tremendous, and deserve to have a club in the top division.

Not for me the schadenfreude which seems to be permeating Premier League fans, although I must admit that I could do with one or two less depressed Geordies describing their moaning fall from grace on phone ins. Somehow, we've all heard it before.

For all of the hope, Newcastle's fate is out of their hands, and the focus of their turmoil this week has been the madness of Joey Barton. Barton is an interesting case, deserving of a certain amount of sympathy, as he clearly has a problem, and it's tempting to put him in the same bracket as someone like Ronnie O'Sullivan, who has been judged by what sports fans regard as "normal" standards, when the demons that he is dealing with are anything but normal.

A pompous reporter on the radio once informed his audience that "Ronnie O'Sullivan needs to be more aware of what he owes the game and not treat snooker with the disrespect that he often shows." My feeling is that O'Sullivan is a manic depressive who we are lucky to have, and whose every achievement should be enjoyed, as it won't be long before he walks away entirely. The likes of me and you really can't sit and judge just what it is that he should and shouldn't do.

So, to a point, Joey Barton deserves a chance, but the question that not just Newcastle, but football in this country in general, needs to ask, is just how many chances he gets. He's onto number six or seven now, and no matter how many times those working with him at the Sporting Chance clinic tell us that he is a nice guy who is doing his best, there must come a time when he would be better not playing for a high profile football club.

Not thrown out in a reactionary way, but having his contract cancelled, and a chance to go away and rebuild his life and his career. The depressing reality is that he'll be transferred away from St James' Park, go somewhere like Blackburn and start the cycle of behaviour all over again. Paul Gascoigne has shown us just how these stories can end, but no one seems to care until it's far too late.

Inappropriate though it seems to follow that last paragraph with advice about gambling (and I do realise that I'm on very thin ice here), I happen to feel that Barton's argument with Alan Shearer (remember it was that, and not his reckless challenge on Xabi Alonso which is the issue here) will be seen as the turning point in Newcastle's season, maybe the mirror image of Phil Brown's half time team talk at Manchester City, and that Newcastle will survive. Sometimes it takes an incident, no matter how vicious or seemingly damaging, to bring a set of players together, and this might just be it.

So I'll be laying Newcastle for the drop at [1.63] and also backing not Brown's Hull, but another North East club, to be relegated. Because of the four who are struggling, it's Sunderland who are sinking like a stone, and are an enormous price at [4.6] to go down under Ricky Sbragia.

They have games at Bolton, Portsmouth and then at home against Chelsea to come, and could very well fail to pick up another point, setting the target for Newcastle and Boro at probably 36, or possibly 35. Newcastle need to beat Gareth Southgate's side, and then Fulham, and they'll more than likely be safe. In fact, given the way that the goal differences will change, they may need only a win and a draw, and I think that they're capable of that. I hope to see Newcastle in the Premier League next season, and Joey Barton as far away from it as possible, and on the way to recovery.

'.$sign_up['title'].'

'; } } ?>

:

:

:

?

: