Has Barton blown his chance?

Controversial midfielder Joey Barton has a habit of hitting the headlines for the wrong reasons, and has attracted his fair share of criticism over the years.

However, that has been changing, especially this season, as Barton has turned himself around from being a complete waste of space as a player for NUFC and has become a key player in what has been a pretty good season for us so far. The facts are that we haven't won without him, so that kind of highlights his importance to the team.

However, outside of Newcastle and it's fanbase it's been a much quieter affair. It seems that if Barton is behaving then he may aswell not exist. The lack of any real acknowledgement of his form this season is telling, as is the utter disregard of the tactics that are sometimes employed against him (Wolves, Stoke). The silence is most definitely deafening when it comes to praising Joey.

That silence was broken in midweek, but it was Barton himself who broke it as he sounded off to a French magazine about his past and how he is currently the best English midfielder on current form. It's hard to argue with it really and his tirade against England players such as Gareth Barry was met with agreement from a fair proportion of our fanbase. 'Joey is just telling it like it is' were some of the remarks that I recall, which is fair enough I guess.

The problem with using the kind of words that Barton used in midweek is that you, perhaps unintentionally, grab the media limelight again. I did wonder during the week, after his remarks, whether or not they were a good thing or a bad thing and whether or not Joey was just setting himself up for another fall in front of the eyes of the frothing masses who have disregarded all of Joey Barton's good work so far this season.

That transpired yesterday as Barton put in his worst performance in a while. Now to you, me, anyone who supports Newcastle this is understandable. It's a blip, a small smudge on what has been a great season for him. But to others it was a chance for Barton to back up his big words with a big performance.

When you are Joey Barton you don't often get the chance to grab the attention for footballing reasons. In a fudged way, Barton had the attention for his football yesterday and he had a chance to show people outside of NUFC what he could offer. He failed, and Joey Barton will only get one chance with some.

Now I know, and you know, that Barton will bounce back from this as every player has a poor game, but not everyone is willing to give him the time which is a shame. The words of Barton may well come back to haunt him. Can you imagine the Villa fans singing 'You're just a s**t Gareth Barry' if Barton hadn't given them the ammunition to do so? I can't...

It's a shame for Barton really as I feel that this was his chance, and I'm unsure whether or he'll get another. Through black and white eyes he will get more chances, of course, but it's not our opinion that he needs to change to be fair.

Chin up Joey.