Villa to offer Reo-Coker as bait for Barton?

Aston Villa are reported to be after Joey Barton again, and are willing to offer a cash plus player deal for the in-form midfielder.

The Daily Mail is suggesting that Gerard Houllier wants the 28-year-old at Villa Park as he tries to turn around their worrying form and will offer Nigel Reo-Coker plus some cash in an effort to tempt Newcastle into a deal.

I very much doubt, and I very much hope, that there is nothing in this, and the fact that it is printed in the Daily Mail makes me lean towards that conclusion, but as Jay Jay wrote the other day, the fact that Barton, amongst other players, is performing so well is bound to attract some interest.

Interestingly, in the very same Daily Mail article, which you can read here by the way, it is also stated that Barton has opened talks over a new contract with Newcastle.

Now it would be foolish to believe that after disregarding the rest of the article, so I'm willing to pretty much disregard that. Rather predictably though, Barton's agent, Willie McKay, was not too far away and made this comment on the whole thing.

"A lot of clubs have shown interest but Joey is very happy at Newcastle," said McKay. "His ambition is to play for England again and he should do as he is the best midfielder in the country at the moment."

It is true, and McKay did say that, but what the Daily Mail forget to mention is that he said much the same thing when there were rumours linking Barton with West Ham a few weeks back. Alomost identical in fact. Surely not? Surely not the Daily Mail reusing a quote to give a story more validity?

Unfortunately, that fact will probably get overlooked as more sites jump on the bandwagon of Joey Barton being sold and how it must be true because there is a quote. We'll see who is right, but I wouldn't bet against myself on this occasion.

The fact of the matter, like a lot of our players, Barton enjoys it at Newcastle. He quite often says that he has an affinity with the club and the fans after they stuck by him through some very troublesome times. Add to that the fact that he is probably our best performer at the minute and has demonstrated his ability under his new manager will more than likely mean that a January deal for Barton will be well wide of the mark.

At least I hope so anyway....