Barton launches fresh attack on Ashley and Llambias

Joey Barton has launched a fresh attack on Newcastle owner and Managing Director, Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias, labelling the two of them "cretins" in the process.

Speaking on QPR Pocast 'Open All R's', Barton also claimed that he was not paid whilst in prison and was offered an ultimatum of reducing his wages or leaving whilst spending time at her Majesty's pleasure before going on to admit that it was him and a few other players who ultimately cost Chris Hughton his job over the much publicised fallout from the bonus payments, or lack of them, last season.

You can listen to what was said in the Podcast by clicking here or you can read the main points below. If you do choose to listen to it then you'll need to press play (obviously) and skip to 28 minutes in as that is where the juicy Newcastle stuff is. Thanks to Chris G for pointing that out.

First off Barton reiterated his disdain for the upper management duo of Derek Llambias and Mike Ashley:

"I've got a lot of ill feeling towards Llambias and Ashley, like a lot of fans have, but the football club is always going to be bigger than any said individual," said Barton.

He continued: "I keep getting told they are really savvy businessmen... but they didn't want me as I ask questions. They promised a number of things and delivered on very few."

"When you pull the shirts on you do if for yourself, the fans and the club but if you despise everything that the owners stand for then its very difficult. I'm a man of principles and maybe that's why I am not at Newcastle."

"I'm happy with them doing well, but the flipside of my happiness is if they do well then the people who I don't like are doing well. I just wouldn't like to work for those two cretins."

So essentially Barton wants Ashley and Llambias to fail, and using his logic, ultimately NUFC to fail, due to his personal dislike of the ownership. Cheers Joey.

Barton then went on to speak about his time in jail, and how the club tried to railroad him into signing a new contract on vastly reduced terms but were prevented from doing so by FA regulations. He also claims that he wasn't paid during his 77 day prison stretch.

"Newcastle say they paid my wages when I was in jail but they never. I was not paid," said Barton.

"They were giving me an ultimatum saying if didn't sign this contract on a fifth of the money I was on they would sack me. I was sitting in a jail cell at the time so I had no real power."

"As a principal I told my agent I'm not signing, I will let them sack me. I was quite confident I would get out of there and get back to the player I was. FA rules proved they couldn't then sack me."

Joey Barton then went on to talk about the sacking of Chris Hughton and the fallout over bonus payments which Alan Pardew sorted out earlier in the summer. He claims that the bonus payments and sacking of Hughton are linked.

"We were only club in Premier League history not to sign a bonus sheet. It never happened. It's unprecedented. We refused because they tried to railroad us into it," claimed Barton.

"It fundamentally cost Chris Hughton his job as he couldn't get us to sign so Mike Ashley said he had no control over the players and that was his undoing. Chris knew he was on borrowed time from then - yet this was a guy who kept club together when we went down, had no budget, inherited a playing squad fragmented and disjointed and handled himself with nothing but dignity. He did a fantastic job swimming against the tide at boardroom level and got the club back into the Premier League."

"We felt aggrieved by Chris' exit, at the same time we refused to sign the bonus sheet. They decided we were the paid workforce and thought we were Sports Direct and do what subordinates there do."

"The bigger name players advised the players not to sign and that filtered back to the boardroom. It's no coincidence that I got sold, or given away, Carroll and Nolan were sold and Harper is being forced to go on loan and his position is made untenable and Alan Smith has been told to train with the reserves for the rest of his days."

So there you go. More Barton bombshells. Well, I say bombshells but they aren't really are they? A lot of people already think Ashley and Llambias are cretins and a lot of people already twigged on that Hughton got the boot because he ultimately couldn't control the players. The only 'new' thing, for me anyway, is the bit about him not being paid whilst in prison. Boo hoo.

I just think it's time for Barton to shut the f*ck up about Newcastle now. At the end of the day he is nothing to do with the club anymore and should focus on QPR. No doubt he will be in his element today as there is a lot of attention on this and, once again, the name of Newcastle United is dragged through the press.

I still have a soft spot for Barton, but the more he whines on the harder it is becoming. I mean essentially they were moaning about a bonus, an addition to their normal wage that is already millions of pounds of year. All this simply because of principal? Hmm.... Funnily enough the bonus sheet was signed this season, and with a lot of the same players still here. Go figure.

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