Joey Barton has risked the wrath of Newcastle’s management board after blasting how the club is being run, insisting there will be a “time and a place” to tell the fans “exactly how it is” at St James’ Park.
PA PhotosJoey Barton has entered the final year of his contract at Newcastle
• Barton happy at Toon
Newcastle’s pre-season preparations have been overshadowed by unrest within the squad with defender Jose Enrique, who has one year remaining on his contract, fined two weeks’ wages for taking to Twitter to state that “this club will never again fight to be among the top six” if they continued to let their best players leave.
Newcastle, who were relegated to the Championship in 2009 before returning to England’s top flight as champions the season after, sold Andy Carroll to Liverpool for £35 million in January and talismanic midfielder Kevin Nolan to West Ham for an undisclosed fee this summer.
Barton, himself in the final year of his current deal, vented his frustrations on the social networking site on Sunday, supporting his team-mate by bemoaning the club’s hierarchy and declaring his intent to leave on a free transfer next summer.
He tweeted: “If only we as players could tell the fans exactly how it is, without them above fining us lots of money. There will be a time and a place.
“If it wouldn’t affect team morale and cause unrest within the dressing room, am certain Jose’s comments would be the tip of the iceberg … And again it would be left to those magnificent fans to pick up the remnants of their once great football club.
“If I wanted to leave, I’d just come out and say ‘I want to leave’. Things need addressing as am not prepared to go through a relegation again.”
On Monday lunchtime, Barton tweeted: “I will be making an announcement regarding my future, on here at 4pm today…”