About Time

Joey Barton was last night sacked from Newcastle United.

And it's about time.

This guy is a criminal. There is no way the club should have kept him under contract after he was convicted of assaulting a lad on a night out last Christmas.

He had joined Newcastle last Summer after his spell at Manchester City more or less ended after he beat up his colleague, Ousmane Dabo. Dabo was beaten unconscious in this attack..

It wasn't the first time Barton had been involved in attacking people while he was employed at Man City.

He was given a fresh start by Sam Allardyce who signed him to join the Magpies. The Newcastle board agreed to his contract as long as they had an option to sack him if he was found guilty in the attack of Dabo.

Ironically, they had every right to terminate his contract a few weeks ago for his ABH charge against the night-clubber who he attacked on Boxing Day. They should have sacked him there and then.

Better late than never, though.

Evening update - I wrote this before the 'news' that Barton had been sacked was deemed to be untrue. The moral of this story is - don't believe everything you read on The Sun's website.