Fantasy football enthusiasts looking for a reliable, low-costing midfielder guaranteed to play a full 90 minutes this weekend could do worse than to avert their gaze to a Newcastle United midfielder who is just as accustomed to wearing prison stripes as he is the famous black and white vertical ones his team don.
Joey Barton stands as one of those figures football fans just love to hate. And with good cause.
The Premier League has been blessed (or dogged) with many a midfield pantomime villain; from Vinny Jones, self-declared general of Wimbledon's "Crazy Gang" who once famously sank his teeth into a journalist's nose, to Dennis Wise, Chelsea's mental midget with a penchant for attacking taxi drivers. Robbie Savage, the former Leicester City, Birmingham City and Derby County combatant, was another who thrived of the vitriolic vibes of opposing supporters.
But most of the above are mere support acts when measured against the list of Barton's misdemeanours. A two-time convicted felon, Barton served 77 days of a six-month prison sentence for common assault and affray for his part in an incident outside a McDonald's restaurant in Liverpool city centre in 2008 and was given a four-month suspended sentence for his savage training ground attack on former Manchester City teammate Ousmane Dabo.
Altercations with City teammates were nothing new to Baron by this point who, in 2004, stubbed out a cigar in then youth team player Jamie Tandy's eye, resulting in permanent scarring but, thankfully, did not leave the young man permanently blinded.
Barton is by no means the most wholesome character you'll come across and it might be safer to play for the opposition sometimes than have him on your side, but the man Mick McCarthy, the Wolverhampton Wanderers manager, recently described as "no shrinking violet" is not one to duck a challenge.
Barton, a Liverpool native, and his teammates travel to Goodison Park on Saturday to face Everton, another team he has "history" with.
In 2005 Barton was sent home from City's pre-season tour of Thailand after attacking a 15-year-old Everton fan that had been abusing him verbally and kicked his shin. He was fined £2,000 (Dh10,000) by the English Football Association the following year after bearing his backside to Toffees fans after the final whistle at Goodison.
But whereas Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, deemed it necessary to take Wayne Rooney out of the firing line last week by omitting him against David Moyes's side following lurid revelations about the England striker's private life by a British newspaper, the first name Chris Hughton, the Newcastle manager, will have jotted down on his team sheet will be Barton's.
His past will always count against him, but, with the exception of a return to Eastlands this season, this is one fixture Barton will be desperate to be involved in; one man against the blue-half of Merseyside.
The siege mentality at work in Barton's brain often brings out his best performances, his passing crisper; his tackles more calculating. He showed against Wolves, whom he believed had been told to target him by their manager, that his temper can be kept in check in the face of such obvious adversity.
Fantasy footballers; get ready to make your weekly transfer.
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