Barton: Inside Toon madhouse

Posted Wednesday, November 30, 2011 by The Sun

JOEY BARTON claims Newcastle issued him with an ultimatum while he was behind bars: Take an 80 PER CENT pay cut or we'll sack you.

The controversial star says that, contrary to popular belief, Toon owner Mike Ashley did NOT pay his wages during his 77-day prison stay in 2008.

And he alleges that while he was holed up in Liverpool's Walton prison, Ashley's former executive director Dennis Wise threatened him with the sack if he did not sign a new deal that would have cut his wages by 80 per cent.

Barton joined QPR in August after being given a free by the Geordies.

The midfielder reckons he, four other senior players and ex-boss Chris Hughton were axed by Ashley and managing director Derek Llambias in a row over bonuses. And in a bombshell interview he lifted the lid on his time at the Toon in a bid to answer his critics who say he should have shown more loyalty to the Tyneside giants.

Barton was jailed for attacking a man outside a restaurant in Liverpool. The attack happened when he was on bail for two previous offences.

Barton said: "A lot of people say to me, 'Oh yeah, but Newcastle paid your wages when I was in jail' — but they never did. Not that I wanted to be, but I was not paid.

"I was also given a contract from Dennis Wise saying if I didn't sign a renegotiated deal on a lot less money then they would sack me.

"That had come from Mike Ashley who obviously controls the club. So they'd basically given me an ultimatum that if I didn't sign this contract on a fifth of the money I was on, they were going to sack me.

"I was sitting in a jail cell at the time, so I had no real power. I had to either do it or not do it.

"As principled as I am, I said to my agent at the time, I'm not signing, f*** them. I'll let them sack me. That was nothing against the football club, I was being railroaded into doing something I didn't want to do.

"My agent got a copy of the contract from Wise and took it to his solicitor in London who put it in a safe. Legally, Newcastle were bound to either sack me or keep me on the contract I was on.

"They couldn't renegotiate a similar length of deal with lower money. Once he'd phoned them up and told them about the FA's rules and regulations they couldn't then sack me."

Barton was offloaded by the Toon after failing to seal a new deal. He told QPR podcast Open All Rs: "They tried to f*** me when I was at a low time, yet they were demanding loyalty from me three years down the line when I was playing well.

"And I was saying hang on a minute, there has to be some balance here. You can't be the way you've been with me. Derek was saying, 'That wasn't me, that was Dennis Wise, that was this, that was that'.

"But, at the end of the day, at that football club Mike Ashley is the Ayatollah. Nothing happens without his say so."

Barton believes Ashley axed him, Hughton plus team-mates Kevin Nolan, Andy Carroll, Steve Harper and Alan Smith because they dared to stand up to him in a dispute over bonuses.

Barton said: "As a playing squad last year, Newcastle were the only club in Premier League history not to sign a bonus sheet.

"We refused as a playing staff because they tried to railroad the players into signing a bonus sheet. It fundamentally cost Chris Hughton his job, in my opinion, because he couldn't get us to sign.

"Mike Ashley said Hughton had no control over the players and needed to go.

"They thought we were Sports Direct and we should do what the subordinates at Sports Direct do, forgetting that you're dealing with 20-odd egos and probably 10 self-sufficient men who were in a position to make a number of different judgments.

"Myself, Kevin Nolan, Alan Smith, Steve Harper and Andy Carroll advised the playing staff, because we were head of the bonus committee, not to sign the sheet.

"That filtered back to boardroom level. It's no coincidence that I got sold — or rather I got given away. Andy Carroll was sold, Kevin Nolan was sold and Alan Smith has been told he's training with the reserves for the rest of his days. So, for me, it's all about power and control.

"They're running the football club and it's going really well at the minute but I think that's more a testament to the players, the fans and also to the manager."

Barton has become one of the sport's top tweeters — and will continue to use his Twitter account to get his views across.

He said: "I've been able to smash down any pre-conceived ideas people had about me. Everyone thought I was this Neanderthal, caveman type that just rolled out of nightclubs beating people up.

"And there was an element of my character that conformed to that. But also there were a lot of different layers below that."