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Joey Barton: Now it's time for football to do the talking
Mar 19 2010
Joey Barton took his first steps to a Newcastle return this week, desperate to finally be judged on his football. Mark Douglas reports on his latest comeback attempt
HITLER, Public Enemy Number One, Chairman Mao, the Antichrist. Joey Barton has been called many things since rising to prominence as a professional footballer – those four were his own choices – but right now there is one accusation that would cut deeper than any of them.
Contemplating a return to a Newcastle United team that has made impressive but understated progress towards a Premier League return in his absence, Barton is desperate not to be seen as a “distraction”.
That is why it was with some reticence that the 27-year-old midfielder, consigned by his grisly past to have his every move scrutinised in forensic detail, opens his mouth after a 75-minute run-out for Newcastle reserves at a virtually deserted, windswept Victoria Park.
He had told Newcastle’s media department that he would not but, after seeing a clutch of journalists had turned up to see him play, felt it only polite to offer a few words on his return. As is always the case with a man who eschews the normal footballer’s platitudes for eviscerating self-honesty, ‘a few words’ turns into five or six questions – and before you know it he has talked for 35 minutes about injuries, his desperation to make up for lost time and joking about how he left Manchester City three years ago because they weren’t spending enough money.
That was before posing for photographs and signing hundreds of autographs for young Hartlepool fans who had gathered to see what all the fuss is about.
Barton understands the contradiction, but his life will never be simple until he is once again known for his football. Being judged solely as an athlete, he insists, can not come soon enough.
“I think people are sick of hearing me talk and babble on. I think they just want to see me do it,” he admitted.
“I wasn’t going to speak after the Hartlepool game but you took the time and effort to come down to see me, so I feel it’s only fair that I do.
“I just want to play football – I just want to be part of this football club. It’s good times (for Newcastle) but I know it’s going to be a long, hard road this season and next season and the season beyond.
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