Will Barton really take a pay cut?

There have been various reports over the weekend suggesting that Joey Barton will accept a pay cut to sign a new contract at Newcastle.

This will undoubtedly be good news if true and will be some way for Joey to show that he does indeed love it at Newcastle and is thankful for the support that both the club and the fans have given him during his darkest hours.

The question is though, why would Joey do it? He doesn't have to accept a lower wage as he could demand equal wages, if not greater wages elsewhere. Does he really appreciate the club more than what you would expect from a modern day footballer?

Should the speculated deal go ahead, I can only assume that it will be so Joey can get a longer deal at the club. Accepting a lower wage will have a short term impact on Joey Barton as in the fact that his take home pay will suffer, but I'd be willing to bet that the overall value of the contracts between the longer, lower paid deal and shorter, higher paid deal wouldn't be much different.

It has a 'win-win' situation written all over it to be honest. Barton looks like an all-round good chap for accepting a pay cut in an era where modern football players have lost touch with reality, but it will also give him the security of a longer term deal.

The fans will appreciate it, how can they not? It may also go some way to calming people down and making them think twice before they launch into a tirade of abuse against him for his past behaviour. I'm looking at fans of other clubs with that accusation to be honest as some of them just don't get it.

Mike Ashley will no doubt be happy as he will get his weekly wage saving which will mean that the club is paying out less per week than they used to. To illustrate this, a saving of just £15,000 a week would save the club £780,000 a year and would still give Barton a decent wedge to play around with I'm sure.

Whether or not there is any truth in this remains to be seen, but there is an awful lot of speculation suggesting that this could be true. When you combine that with Alan Pardew's not so subtle hint that one of our key men will be tied down to a new contract soon then you would have to think that perhaps there could be some truth in this after all.

And if it is, well done Joey!