THE JOEY BARTON DILEMMA

I like Joey Barton.

I like how he plays. I like his personality, in spite of some of the horrible things he's done in his life.

But if I were in charge of Newcastle United, I'd think long and hard before signing Barton to a contract extension.

Barton, who's probably been Newcastle's player of the season, will be a free agent after next season. He was widely expected to sign an extension back in January, but reportedly got cold feet after United sold Andy Carroll. 

There have been so many conflicting reports since then that it's been difficult to handicap the odds of Barton staying at Newcastle past this season. Just like with Jose Enrique, if United can't reach an extension with Barton, surely it will cash in on him this summer to avoid losing him for nothing a year later — not to mention both players' values have never been higher during their time at the club. 

Barton has been one of the key figures in what has been, at least to this point, a successful first season back up in the Premier League. He's tied for fifth on the team in goals with five and is the assists leader with seven, the latter statistic showing just how much Newcastle's play has gone through him this season. He's also credited with being a major influence in United's locker room.

So it would seem Newcastle would be crazy to allow Barton to leave. But that's an overly simplistic view that doesn't take into account his first three seasons with the club, when he battled injuries, off-field problems of the highest order and subpar play. 

An optimist would say Barton has turned the corner both on and off the field since then. A pessimist would point to several incidents this season (his sucker punch on Blackburn's Morten Gamst Pedersen and a questionable interaction with Fernando Torres during United's win over Liverpool) as well as Barton's recent boasting to French football magazine So Foot. 

Barton can say he was misquoted in that much-talked-about interview, but the fact that he was even willing to discuss a topic like his infamous fight with former Manchester City teammate Ousmane Dabo — So Foot quoted Barton as calling Dabo "a little pussy" — shows poor judgment.

And while Barton genuinely seems to have made efforts to improve his conduct, he still looks like a loose cannon at times — last week's defeat at Aston Villa, for example — and can get sucked into trying to critique every refereeing decision when he or the team isn't playing well. Then there's the fact that Barton will be 29 in September.

All of this isn't to say Newcastle shouldn't try to keep Barton, particularly if he's willing to take a significant paycut from his current salary (reportedly £67,000 a week).

But if United's decision-makers come to the conclusion that the risk with Barton is just too great, I won't blame them.

Comments

[Ryan]

The Barton dilemma is truly a tricky one. If you go off of this years performance and behavior, then he is definitely worth keeping. The tricky part is whether or not he has changed for good. Too many times troubled athletes say they have had an epiphany and have changed for the better, only to continue to go down a troubled path.

With that being said, despite past transgressions, I find myself rooting for JB. I like the fire he plays with, and his "take no s***" attitude that we lack sometimes. Overall, I rate him highly this year for his overall quality of play, especially on the things he is best at: his service balls/free kicks/corners, etc. Other than a couple of games where he seemed just out of sync, most games this year he has been remarkable. A large number of Andy Carroll's goals were due to perfect setup from Joey.

I do hope we are able to keep him, and our risk pays off. The fact that he is willing to take a pay cut to stay at United when you don't see many acts of loyalty like that in modern sports nowadays. I only want to have players that want to play for United on our team, and clearly Joey does. If he leaves, we really don't have anyone left with nearly the quality as Joey on set pieces, free kicks, etc. It becomes essential to replace him if he leaves. I know Seb Larsson is one of our targets, and while good, I don't think he has JB's quality and I think Seb is a bit overpriced.

[Tom]

Good comments, Ryan. You and I have very similar thoughts on this issue.

It'd be interesting to know what's actually going on with the negotiations. If I'm Barton, I'm probably less eager to sign for lower wages considering the kind of season I'm having. I wonder if that's happened at all.

Larsson is a free agent this summer, so they wouldn't have to waste any money on the fee (other than a signing-on fee, I guess). There were rumors about how much money he wanted back in January, but it still wasn't close to what Barton's making.

I hope they sign Larsson either way. He's a personal favorite of mine.