Barton Released From Jail & Still Has a Job

This is a sad world we live in when you have a guy like Joey Barton who has repeatedly been in trouble for fighting, including knocking out a teammate, and he still has a job at Newcastle United. Barton was released after serving two months of a six month sentence. Barton was doing time at Strangeways Prison, interesting name, in Manchester.

Kevin Keegan has publically said that Barton still has a place on his team.

The other thing that makes me realize this guy is a complete tool and needs more than just psycological help is that he attacked a man on the streets of Liverpool and it was caught on CCTV. Everything in the UK is caught on CCTV, you can't walk on a public street without being watched. So why punch someone when you have no defense against a video of it.

So Newcastle United bought this guy in June of 2007 for £5.8 million and is on £40,000 a week. He was also selected to play for the English National Team after he had already assaulted his former teammate at Man City, Ousamane Dabo.

Barton was also accused of vandalizing a taxi cab, but was cleared of the charges. Now how many things do you think this guy has gotten away with in his career.

If I were the top players on Newcastle I would be protesting the thought of this animal being let back on the pitch. Teach him a lesson by taking away football and the large salary he gets. when he's selling cars in Newcastle he might realize what he did. That's going to happen, because he will be back at practice this week.

In Other News:

Robbie Keane is close to signing a deal with Liverpool that is said to be worth about £18 million. I just can't see him being worth that much, especially coming from Spurs. That alone is damaging to his reputation.

Fulham are on the verge of signing Andrew Johnson from Everton for £12 million. Looks like Everton need to free up some cash to buy Sporting Lisobon midfielder Joao Moutinho. So we will see if this goes through. I thought Fulham wanted to become team America, but have since dropped the number of Americans it has by two.

Portsmouth have sold midfielder Silley Muntari to Inter Milan for £12.7m, which is Jose Mourinho's second signing after getting Roma winger Mancini. So who will be next on the former Chelsea managerers list?

Arsene Wenger is looking for a new midfielder before the end of the transfer window. He has lost Gilberto, Hleb and Flamini this year and Lungberg last year. Alex Song is off to the Olympics for the start of the season and we made two signings, Nasri & Ramsey, but neither have proven anything yet. Hopefully they will be just what we need. So who will be that one signing we look for, please be someone of value, not of development.

Arsenal take on Burgenland XI today in their next friendly and Wednesday will take on VfB Stuttgart before the weekend Emirates cup against Juventus and Real Madrid. So these will all certainly be good test matches to the start of the season Saturday, August 16th. We do also have a Champions League qualifier on Tuesday, August 12th, which is the first match that really counts.

I thought this was an interesting rumor floating around, Henri to ManU. There;s just no way that this would happen. Plus he would be in Ronaldo's way if he played up on the left. So that's all for today.

Let's hope Arsenal have a good showing with the young guys today. Hope we some impressive play.