This weekend everyone’s favourite villain could make his return to football after seven months out injured. Newcastle United's Joey Barton has had more come-backs than a 90s boy band, and this is surely last chance saloon time. Despite his undoubted ability, Barton’s endless list of misdemeanours has elevated him to public enemy number one, but ahead of his latest comeback, can he convince us all that there is more to Joey Barton than obnoxious thuggery?
A changed man
Ahead of his return, Barton has been talking a good game. In a recent interview with BBC Radio 4’s Toady programme, he talked candidly about his battles with drink and his experiences with the Sporting Chance clinic.
The clinic is an organisation set up by Tony Adams to provide a recovery facility for sportsmen and women struggling with addictions, and Barton is keen to highlight the way the clinic helped him to ‘grow into a man’. It ‘gave me the tools to understand myself, basically’, said the former Man City man.
Deja Vu
It’s all very promising, but let’s not forget we’ve been here before. As far back as 2004, Barton was offering heartfelt apologies to, then Man City manager, Kevin Keegan after stubbing a cigarette out in a team-mate’s eye.
Just a year later Barton was in trouble again for his involvement in a bar-brawl on a pre-season tour. This time it was Stuart Pearce who backed his player and sent Barton to the Sporting Chance clinic for the first time. ‘Stuart Pearce didn’t have to do that’, Barton said at the time, ‘I hope I can repay him with my performances’.
Six years, multiple assault charges and one stint in the slammer on, and Barton is still releasing the same kind of statements, so why should we think it will be different this time? Well, Barton is keen to stress that he has overcome his drink problem.
Credit where it’s due
Sympathy has, understandably, been in short supply down the years, but Barton should be commended for dealing with his alcoholism. Not having a drink for two years represents a real achievement, and off the pitch, the Newcastle man has steered clear of trouble since spending 77 days in prison for common assault and affray in 2008.
He has so far been unable to transfer this recovery on to the pitch, although in many ways this return represents the perfect opportunity for him. His absence from the game for the last six months, while unfortunate, has kept him largely out of the public eye. There have been no assault charges, prison sentences or drunken sprees of violence and Barton has hopefully spent the time keeping himself to himself and concentrating on his football.
Fresh start
He now re-joins a team looking positively to the future for the first time in years. Newcastle are riding high at the top of the Championship, nine points clear of the play-offs, and securing automatic promotion straight back into the Premier League should be a formality. It sounds like an easy set-up to slip back into, and once back in the top division, Barton should relish his role as a senior squad member.
After all, he does have bucket loads of top-flight experience. Barton emerged into the Manchester City first team in 2003, and quickly earned a reputation as a talented, combative midfielder. When he has been able to string a run of games together, he has impressed, even earning a call up to the full England squad in 2007.
Test of character
The quality, then, is there and if he wants it, this is a great opportunity to rebuild a car-crash of a career. But he has to prove he now has the character to deal with being a professional footballer. He can moan all he likes about being singled out for inhumane treatment, but he’s dished enough of that out himself in his time. His profile as the bad-boy of football is now set in stone (and well earned), and Barton will have to learn to accept everything that comes with it.
Yes, some players will go out with the sole intention of winding him up (after all, he did recently call the whole lot of them ‘knobs’) and yes, the world will be watching him intently just waiting for him to screw up again, but frankly, he’s made his bed. Newcastle manager Chris Houghton will be encouraged by his player’s words, but should he fail to live up to them, there won’t be too many people willing to offer another chance.
Barton’s comments are a refreshing change from the normal clichés footballer’s talk in, but ultimately they mean nothing. He has said it all before, and now it is time to do his talking on the pitch. If Joey Barton wants us to believe he is finally a credible professional, this is his last opportunity, and he must let his actions do the talking.