Barton set for FA punishment?

Barton courts more controversy.
It seems as though the words Joey and Barton have been the buzz words of the weekend again. Not Alex Song for his rather cynical stamp, but instead Joey Barton.

We saw the red mist descend on Saturday evening. Barton was no longer in his comfort zone and it gave us a flashback to a bygone era where Joey blew his top far too often. That was no way to act on a football pitch. He knows it and has said so himself. Granted he felt suitably riled that a dirty foot on the back of his leg didn’t get noticed, which was only made worse when Gervinho went down in the box after being shot by a mysterious sniper a challenge by Cheik Tiote, but he knows more than anyone that he has just opened up another can of worms for himself.

Ironically it’s not his on-field antics that could land him in trouble. That was dealt with there and then by the referee and as per the rules of the FA it means that there should be no comeback on that, although I wouldn’t put it past the footballing authorities to find a loophole somewhere to allow retrospective punishment. With Joey Barton they’ll find the time to fit the crime.

Anyway, as I said, it’s not his behaviour on the pitch that has pricked the ears of the FA. Instead it’s his outbursts on Twitter after the match yesterday. You know, the ones where he called Gervinho a cheat in the same breath as admitting that he went down far to easily after the Ivory Coast mans limp wristed slap, called Shearer a slaphead, and got accused of assault by Jack Wilshere. The normal stuff.

In fact it got that bad that Barton went on Radio 5Live to help clarify a few things. Here is what he had to say:

“I have to take back blatantly calling him a cheat but he was still looking for a penalty and thankfully the referee knew what he was up to. I have to take responsibility for my actions and I should not have gone over and lifted him by his shirt. That was not the correct thing to do.”

“We do push the boundaries but I felt disappointed by Gervinho trying to win a penalty. I am not a fool, I realise there is slight contact, but in my opinion he was seeking to gain an unfair advantage. Sometimes you react and I am not proud of the way I reacted.”

“I did go down easily but it is not OK to hit me because it’s me. I have been hit harder at school. It does not make what he did right or wrong but he raised his hand and the rules are you can’t do that. I have made a meal of it but I knew Song had stamped on me and I was slightly aggrieved by that because I am aware the spotlight is on me at certain times, because of my stupidity in the past and people don’t condone me easily.”

“In 20 years of the Premier League there has been an influx of diving, and I sound hypocritical because I am guilty of going down too easily but if I didn’t and I stayed on my feet, I could be making my own team suffer if the officials had not seen it.”

Meanwhile an FA spokesman has said that they will be “looking at everything that has gone on since Saturday night.”

For anyone else it’s just a cursory look. For Joey Barton though it will be the full cavity search I fear. The witch-hunt continues and it seems that people won’t stop until they’ve nailed Barton to a cross for some transgression or another.

I wouldn’t put it past the FA doling out some form of punishment to Barton. Would you?

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

66 thoughts on “Barton set for FA punishment?

  1. Pederson and Elmander last season are examples of players going down easy against us last season and it cost us a lot of games through suspensions, the EPL is littered with cheats, too many to mention but i was saddened to see Barton do the same on Saturday and then last night he condemned Gervihno and he then admitted he had done the same trying to justify it.
    Unfortunately, the FA having ignored the cheating debate for so long may be tempted to crucify Barton as he an easier target than Nanni or Ashley Young, both of whom are ” at it” every single game.
    Regardless of the outcome, Barton needs to get himself sorted out for Saturday or he will go off with a bang.

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  2. Despite many saying Barton comes across as intelligent I think the opposite.

    The twitter remarks, the radio conversation just makes him look foolish as he contradicts himself.

    It’s a free world and everyone is entitled to say as they wish but it looks like he’s talked himself into an FA penalty.

    Not very clever in this instance IMO.

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  3. Also, if the myopic linesman and 4th official had acted on the Song stamping which happened in front of them, we wouldnt be having this debate!

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  4. Whats wrong with you people – how can you support this scumbag – even your god shearer says it was a penalty – surely that’s enough… its simple song should have been sent off, Barton should have been sent off we should have had a penalty…

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  5. I don’t believe the FA can do anything retrospectively as, in giving out a yellow, the ref will be deemed to have dealt with it at the time!

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  6. Part of me really loves Barton the player and part of me really admires Barton the man.

    However, his temper is uncontrollable and I agree with Troy, the Twitter access is the worst thing he could possibly have done.

    Barton is an intelligent bloke and he’s certainly not daft neither are people reading and listening to him lately.

    “In 20 years of the Premier League there has been an influx of diving, and I sound hypocritical because I am guilty of going down too easily but if I didn’t and I stayed on my feet, I could be making my own team suffer if the officials had not seen it.”

    I don’t think he’s unaware of the irony in that statement, so it sounds again like an attempt to play the victim. And nobody likes that, not even his staunchest supporterts.

    T

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  7. the ref booked barton so there for the fa carnt intervene , but there again cos its j barton they will but if its some 1 else they wont bother fa are scum to nufc 👿 👿

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  8. Barton certainly does/says things without thinking first or in this case watch the TV replays…

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  9. GOONER PLEASE TELL ME HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT THE WHOLE ARSENAL TEAM BUNCH OF DIRTY CHEATING BASTARDS ,SO GO AND FCK YOUR SELF HYPOCRITE

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  10. David Cresswell
    August 15, 2011 at 08:29

    “I don’t believe the FA can do anything retrospectively as, in giving out a yellow, the ref will be deemed to have dealt with it at the time!”

    AS said twice in the article, it’s not the stuff on the pitch that could land him in bother.

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  11. A Gooner
    August 15, 2011 at 08:27

    “Whats wrong with you people – how can you support this scumbag”

    Because he is our scumbag 🙂

    How is Wilshere’s woman beating coming along?

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  12. A Gooner…good news about Fabregas this morning?!? 😆

    It also appears Wenger is throwing Barton admiring glances so he might be your scumbag soon…

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  13. Don’t suppose he will ever be free of his image. Chickens are home to roost I’m afraid.

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  14. wenger can keep his hands off j barton we need his passion on the pitch he get the fans going during games

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  15. jose may be regretting leaving nufc after he kept doing them runs down the line and know would give him the return pass that jonas would give him he looked well pissed off a number of times , best sticking with the devil u know the grass is not all ways greener on the other side 😆 😆 😆

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  16. ose may be regretting leaving nufc after he kept doing them runs down the line and know 1 would give him the return pass that jonas would give him he looked well pissed off a number of times , best sticking with the devil u know the grass is not all ways greener on the other side 😆 😆 😆

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  17. I just think it is rediculous that the man(Barton) who was stamped on and hit on, I know not very hard but still, is the man who is being witch-hunted. All those who says he should be ashamed for falling easy, name me one player who wouldnt do that. The prejuiced against Barton is just rediculous.

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  18. Batty@9….was going to write something myself but you put it more eloquently than I ever could 😉

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  19. Just realised we used all three subs on Saturday. It shows an attempt to try and shake things up unlike Hughton who would have just made one sub when Nolan told him to 🙂

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  20. Barton – good player but an A1 idiot. Looking forward to him taking his controversial ways else where.

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  21. TOONSY you were right aboot gettin some propper dicks on here as soon as you went on to news now 😉

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  22. @ 23 – if barton wants the reputation of a hard lad then he should start acting like one – seeing him fall over & holding his head as if he had been hit with a baseball bat was’nt very good viewing – it was f@cking embarrassing!

    what would the likes of billy whitehurst or vinnie jones have done ?? – they would have laughed in his face!!! then after the game they would have slapped the little **** around the carpark then sent him on his way.

    do it the reet way next time joey or you’ll lose my respect kidda.

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  23. As for Sammy, to me he is still wet behind the ears and needs work before he gets near the first team regular. Lacks an end product although there is something there.

    I just think that in the end Pardew wanted the experienced heads out there. I mean look at the reaction to a draw against Arsenal. Quite simply it’s been ridiculous. Imagine if we’d have lost?

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  24. Am I the only one sick of hearing about Barton?
    I don’t care how good he can be – he’s an arseh@le
    I would not socialise with him, and certainly not invite him to my house
    In the past I can think of managers who would have of sorted him out long ago
    And hard men defenders who would have crippled him
    These days we just make excuses ‘cos he plays football
    And now we can’t give him away – let alone raffle him
    I suppose we are stuck with him like **** to a blanket – but it does not mean we have to play him! Have we no pride in NUFC?
    HWTL

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  25. It would appear that Barton stays mad longer than the wife.

    He claims he was still upset at having been stamped on by Song.

    So does this justify him dragging someone else of the ground 15 minutes later for a dive?

    Of course it could have been a genuine case of mistaken identity as both Song and Gervinho were wearing red and white shirts and a pair of shorts at the time.

    As far as Pardew is concerned it seems its all OK as long as he doesnt tweet about it.

    Oh hang on – he did.

    Is Barton really worth the bother? If you had a dog that behaved like that you put it to sleep. (Or sell it to Stoke!)

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  26. Six months to buy a CF – and we are looking at Modibo Maiga

    Who?
    what on eath are we doing?

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  27. Toonsy – lets be honest, if Pardew hadn’t made 3 substitutions after watching that sh!te we would have been checking him for a pulse.

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  28. Trouble is wi what we had on the bench.

    Do you think Pardew considered improving things by just taking Ba off and not sending a replacement on?

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  29. Joey has turned things around in last 18 months….he is the driving force in that team. Without him I think we will suffer. Give him a goalscorer to hit this season and we can give anyone a game with this squad.

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  30. Roy cropper @ 23 – It was a different game back then, less diving and such, but thats not my point. My point is that Barton is the one who got abused yet he is one who gets all the flak. Where is the witchhunt for Gervinho for being a diving little cheater?(Remember first half vs Raylor???) or where is the witchhunt for Song for being a dirty dirty git delibrately stamping Barton on the ankle???? As I said Barton fell too easily and agreed, he had no business picking up the diving scum, but that still doesnt justify yet another flame campaign against Barton.

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  31. Lads on the Joey over reacting l would but money on the fact that if Joey hadn’t went down when slapped, Gervinho wouldn’t have got a red but Joey would have got a red for trailing Gervinho up.
    Joey got stamped on and they didnt see it, so if he hadn’t went down when Gervinho slapped him they wouldn’t have seen that either.
    What he done was wrong but if he didn’t do it I fear we were down to 10 men and no points.

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  32. Joey shouldn’t have gone down but he probably was thinking there’s no way another ones getting away with something, doesn’t make it right but I can understand why…..and I don’t think we’ll have to do without Joey …..not until Jan at the earliest anyway 😉

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  33. Big Dave
    August 15, 2011 at 10:11

    Lads on the Joey over reacting l would but money on the fact that if Joey hadn’t went down when slapped, Gervinho wouldn’t have got a red but Joey would have got a red for trailing Gervinho up.

    Exactly! Thats also what Barton himself has said! He had to fall easily to get Gervinho kicked out.

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  34. Steve@40 – Dont think its relevant whether he’s aiming for a goalscorer, Ameobi or a Ford Fiesta (I put Ameobi in the middle there as being probably half way between the other 2)

    How many balls were on target on Saturday?

    He had problems getting it past the first defender – so it doesnt really matter who was on the end of it. And a small defender at that

    Yes Sometimes he can be brilliant but sometimes just isn’t enough.

    And all this **** can’t be good for the team. All the uncertainty and distraction.

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  35. APP I think that would have pleased some of our fans to see Joey get sent of because he is a bad boy.
    I just wish some could see past their hate for Joey and realise that he is our bad boy but while he’s our’s we should try to get behind him and support him, as he has thousands of haters that would love to see him banished for life.
    IMO our job as fans is to support our players.

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  36. Big Davey and Richie – do you honestly think that Bartons thought process is quick enough to take all that into consideration before going to ground?
    If that had happened on the centre spot before kickoff Barton would have gone down.
    Its the old 2 rights dont make a wrong.
    Barton is not the victim here – he was stamped by Song, who got away with it.
    There is no justification at all for what he then did to Gervinho 15 minutes later.
    If Gervinho had dragged Barton off the ground like that Barton would have decked him on the spot. And then he would have tried to justify it on twitter

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  37. Big Dave – excellent post mate, it also reflects my standing point. I am also delighted to see Pardew doing the same and he did well on defending Barton at the post match interview.

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  38. It’s pretty clear there is no love lost between Shearer and Barton – in fact Shearer seem sto hold a massive grudge against Barton and the team in general since he wasn’t given the job. Personally I don’t think Shearer will ever make a manager ( he’s pretty poor as a pundit as well)

    I’d also like to say a couple of words about toon old boys

    Well done to Hughton on his 1st win at Brum
    Congrats to Nolan on his MotM display on Sat

    lets all laugh at Judas for being marked out of the game by Wes Brown

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  39. Big Dave – How about Barton’s tweeting every time someone takes a ****, Barton’s handbags on the dancefloor, Barton being sent to the naughty step and training on his own, Barton slagging the management off, is Barton going to stay or are we going to ship him off somewhere.

    All disruption and distraction brought about by a big kid who, depending who you listen to is either a Martyr, a brat or a nutter.
    Apparently he used to be sick, but he got better and he’s OK now.
    If you remove all the **** surrounding Barton then I’m sure we’d find a hundred other things to whine about, but wouldn’t the atmosphere and the morale in the camp be better?
    Just a thought.

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  40. APP I said yesterday that I was proud of Pards for defending one of his own.
    I can remember last yr when Henry and co tried to take him clean out of the game, and they were dangerous tackles, and in the post match interviews Hoots was asked about the treatment Joey got ?? Did hoots back his player ?? No he just fudged it and said that the game needs hard players like Henry hahaha.
    Archie from my experience in a team, if one or more of that team is getting attacked from outside it normally makes the team tighter, all for one and one for all. 😉

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  41. Archie, I don’t think there was any quickness of thought, I think maybe decided after the Song stamp he’d get his own back the first chance he got..and he did 😉

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  42. Richie – spot on mate. Saylor could have bumped into him and he’d have gone down.
    Ahhhhh, the good old days when players were honest and would stand toe to toe slugging it out.

    Sometimes they were even on different teams…….

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  43. Archie….those days are long gone, the diving etc comes naturally to alot of players, we don’t have to like it but we have to get used to it, I didn’t like Jonas waving the imaginary card either but unless refs book players everytime for doing that, it’ll continue 🙁

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  44. Archie as far as I can see the only problem with Joey is his tweeting, I dont think that is the big crime some make it out to be, so I do wish he would tweet less .

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  45. no bigger – joey – supporter than myself & imo this current team would sink fast without him – a new contract for him is a must.
    but i could never defend a player for feinging injury or diving regardless of who it is – like i say there’s ways & means of getting even without making yourself look like a complete ***.

    dickie @ 59 – the waving of the imaginary cards is another spineless act that should be stamped out of our game – i does my heed in when i see them doing it.

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  46. A Gooner,
    If Song had been sent off you’d never have even got the penalty shout.
    Also, if Gervinho hadn’t dived around all game perhaps the penalty shout would have been more convincing.

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  47. Barton’s a decent footballer if he keeps himself under control and nothing very confrontational happens, but those games are rare. I thought he did really well to keep it together after the Song “stamp”, but unfortunately (or maybe fortunately as it turned out lol) he couldn’t keep it bottled for the duration. I reckon he’s a good player for NUFC, and he’ll get yous some points this season but there’ll be times when you’ll wish he wasn’t on your team i’m betting.

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