Joey Barton Free Transfer and the Sad Reality of Mike Ashley's Toon Control

Mike Ashley is at it again.

A tenure as Newcastle United chairman in which he has gained the rather unsavoury stigma of the Premiership’s worst chairman just took a turn for the weird.

This is a club for whom a 40,000+ crowd is seen as average. A side who hold a monopoly over much of North-East England. An establishment who can boast Paul Gascoigne, Andy Cole, Alan Shearer and Peter Beardsley amidst their esteemed old-boy roll call.

The very same club who now finds it apt to release their brightest (remaining) talent on a free transfer.

Joey Barton, disillusioned by the sale (and subsequent lack of reinvestment) of Andy Carroll for 35 million last summer, and shambolic deal that saw club captain Kevin Nolan drop down a division to join West Ham in the championship, vented his frustrations over the social networking phenomenon that is Twitter.

Insinuating a negative influence on players from “them above”, a plethora of Barton’s tweets, expressed a sense of discontent with Ashley and his board.

Admittedly a global social networking forum is not really the most subtle of mediums upon which to convey said grievances, yet sometimes the bigger picture becomes important.

After the farcical sale of Nolan, Barton was among the last vestiges of true top class talent in the centre for the toon (I’d include Tiote in that bracket). By failing to either pre-empt and deal with Barton’s frustrations behind closed doors, or indeed run a football club with a modicum of foresight, Ashley has failed Newcastle United and it’s fans. Again.

The precedent was, to me, set by the Nolan deal which rankles as quite possibly the most illogical transfer of… well a long time.

Strong clubs don’t lose their best players to second tier clubs, and believe you me, a 12^th place Premiership finish constitutes a “strong” club. Nolan was the fulcrum of the side and they sold him to West Ham. Relegated West Ham.

Joey Barton is likely to demand a more lavish bed for the next few seasons, but in many ways that makes the debacle over his “free transfer” even more illogical.

Footballers fall out with their chairman or manager over even the most nonsensical issues. It is perhaps apt to cite the fact that, despite criticising upper-management, Barton has yet to ask to leave, instead expressing his love for the club and their fans. It is Newcastle who instigated his escape route.

The problem is between Ashley, Barton and with a dressing of Ashley’s stooge Alan Pardrew, added to compound the dishes unsavoury concoction.

I feel for Newcastle fans as this sets a very unstable precedent about Ashley’s control over the club. A reign in which knee-jerk decisions (Chris Hughton’s sacking to me a defining moment), have come to define the sporting-goods mogul’s presence atop the black and white hierarchy.

Newcastle United do not deserve Mike Ashley and he doesn’t deserve them.

As for Joey Barton, with a roll-call of Britain’s top club’s reportedly vying for his signature, including champions Man Utd, Arsenal, Tottenham and Celtic, the future looks bright. A new club, a chairman restraining his hands from meddling in club affairs, a manager who can control him and a happier Twitter feed.

It’s black and white really.