What is going on at NUFC?

Apologies if anyone feels like this is old news, but due to work this is the first chance I've had to have my say on the whole Joey Barton contract saga.

It appears that the bottom line at the minute is that Joey Barton will see out the final year of his contract before leaving on a free at the end of the next season. With news also circulating that Kevin Nolan is now stalling on a new contract is has left me, and I'm sure many others, wondering just what is going on at NUFC.

You see to me it isn't as cut and dry as some are making out. Quite a few people are blaming the club for the situation that we find ourselves in at the moment. Fair enough, each to their own and that. I personally feel that there is blame on all sides. I mean didn't Barton and Nolan themselves say that a deal had been agreed between them and the club not so long back? So what happened?

I think at least a part of all this is just the game between agent, player and club when it comes to contract negotiations. We saw a very similar thing with Steven Taylor not so long back and he ended up signing a new long-term deal. If Barton and Nolan really love the club, the fans, the city as much as they say they do you can be pretty certain that this won't be the end of contract talks.

Just when things look like they are going alright there is something that crops up to bring us back down again. I don't know all of the details so it's hard to apportion blame, but I'm willing to bet that agents and the club have come to a head again. We know that Llambias can't be trusted, but neither can Barton's agent Willie McKay - remember he was banned from acting as an agent at one point due to 'irregularities' concerning deals that he was involved in.

So while things may be at an impasse at the moment I don't believe for one second that everything is done and dusted and that it's as black and white as it seems. There are many permutations that could happen from here on in and I guess as fans we have to hope that some of those permutations end up in our favour.

Just on a sidenote, I see Joey Barton has opened up his own Twitter account where, judging by some of his tweets thus far, he'll be having a go at people. Must be this new mature and level-headed Joey Barton kicking in again! Mind you, does anyone actually know whether or not it's a real account as yet? I know I don't....

It's good for entertainment though...