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Why for Barton silence is golden

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You may be wondering why I’m writing about Newcastle’s Joey Barton for the second time in a week (if you didn’t catch the first article, make sure you check outIf it had been Barton…) However, like many Newcastle fans, I don’t think he’s getting the credit he deserves. While this doesn’t bother me one bit, as long as he’s doing the business on the pitch in the Premier League for Newcastle then I’m a happy man, it seems like many people cannot bring themselves to give the controversial midfielder any praise whatsoever.

This quote from Gareth Roberts, incidentally about the hoo-ha surrounding Wayne Rooney, sums up the way I see Barton largely being portrayed in the media. “Joey Barton has long been the boo-boy of the football world, so much so that rather than being praised for a superb season with Newcastle this year, he seems to have dropped out of the papers altogether: when there’s nothing negative to write about Barton, there’s nothing to write about.”

That couldn’t be more true, in fact there’s little being positively written about Newcastle at all which is a bit strange seeing as they’re a promoted team in the top half of the Premier League, but never mind. Coming back to Barton, the England international has excelled on the right hand side of midfield throughout the season. He’s part of the strongest area of the Newcastle team, with the tenacious Cheik Tiote, exciting Jonas Guiterrez and Mr Reliable Kevin Nolan, but arguably should be regarded above them all for his frequent man of the match performances.

How far Joey Barton has come is illustrated by the fact that Newcastle manager Alan Pardew was set to make him captain against Wolves if Nolan missed out due to illness as expected, an honour he’ll get to fulfil against Aston Villa on Sunday. The game against Wolves marked the return of arguably Barton’s finest hour this season, in a behavioural sense at least. At Molineux earlier in the season Joey was targeted from the off and hardly batted an eye-lid, let alone retaliated. At St James’ Park on Saturday, Barton was once again subjected to a tasty George Elokobi tackle, but I think Wolves quickly realised that they weren’t going to get any joy from the ‘let’s wind up Barton until he cracks’ tactic.

The 28-year-old is clearly in the peak of his career right now and Newcastle deserve to reap the results for sticking by the previously troubled midfielder. Serious contract negotiations will take place this summer, but they should be straightforward enough as Barton wants to stay and Newcastle want to keep him. His agent has said “it’s about the length of the deal”, and given the form and level of control he’s shown this season, Newcastle shouldn’t be too worried about handing him a five-year deal. Barton’s representative also said “he wants to get back into the England squad”, but given the way Joey’s represented in the media, I can’t see Fabio Capello going against the grain.

Given Joey Barton’s past, it’s hard to write an article about him that doesn’t involve either the words ‘controversial’ or ‘troubled’ or both as I’ve just done! However, that shouldn’t stop people writing positive things about him and the way he’s performed this season. Barton is trying to let his football do the talking, so why not concentrate on that? He is a footballer after all. One thing Newcastle fans can be safe in the knowledge of is that if Joey Barton isn’t being written about in the newspapers then he must be playing and behaving well, otherwise we wouldn’t hear the last of it!

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