Barton arrest adds to turmoil at Newcastle
He has been on the arrest sheet more often than the team sheet this season hasn't he?
"Sam Allardyce must be regretting scrapping plans to make his Newcastle United squad spend most of this week locked away in a training camp, after Joey Barton was arrested on suspicion of assault in Liverpool in the early hours of yesterday morning.
A spokesman for Merseyside police confirmed: "Two men and a woman were arrested in Church Street at 5.30am on suspicion of assault. They were taken to a city-centre police station where they are still being dealt with."
Last night there was no indication from the arresting officer as to whether the trio - understood to include Barton - would be charged. It seems that the England midfielder went for a night out in Liverpool after the 1-0 Boxing Day defeat at Wigan only to be arrested before dawn yesterday. "The club is aware of an incident," a Newcastle spokesman said last night. "But until we have more information it would be inappropriate to comment."
Senior Newcastle players pleaded to be allowed time with their families over Christmas and, against his better judgment, their manager acceded to their request, only to learn yesterday that Barton was in police custody.
Barton, signed by Allardyce from Manchester City for £5.8m last summer, is already facing a crown court trial this summer, charged with actual bodily harm after an alleged assault on his then City team-mate Ousmane Dabo last spring.
His latest brush with the law could not have come at a worse time for Allardyce, who last night conceded that he was back "under the cosh" after the reverse at Wigan. In recent months the club chairman Chris Mort's reaction to poor results has often been to back Allardyce by stressing that he and Newcastle's owner, Mike Ashley, were not "short-term thinkers" but no such reassurance was forthcoming yesterday, although club sources last night insisted no sacking was imminent.
With friends of Alan Shearer having let it be known that the former Newcastle and England captain would not be averse to returning to his old club as manager, Allardyce's hold on his job appears increasingly fragile - and particularly when Ashley watched the Wigan game while sitting among visiting fans, some of whom were chanting Shearer's name. "It's the same old story, isn't it? You lose a game and you lose it badly and you are under the cosh, especially if you are the manager," said Allardyce. "I cannot blame the fans for what they were singing."
