Joey Barton in line for United return

Aug 30 2008 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

THE threadbare nature of Newcastle United’s first-team squad could be ruthlessly highlighted at Arsenal today as manager Kevin Keegan admitted he has been forced to recall his controversial midfielder Joey Barton.

Barton will be on the bench at the Emirates Stadium for the first time since his release from prison last month after he was found guilty of assaulting two people in a drunken rage in Liverpool in December last year.

Although Keegan insisted last week the former Manchester City star was well short of match fitness as a result of his time behind bars, the shock £12m sale of James Milner to Aston Villa and unfortunate injuries to Geremi and Habib Beye meant that only seven senior players were able to take part in yesterday’s training session.

Keegan attempted to put a brave face on things during the build-up to the visit to north London, but it is debatable whether the Magpies have ever faced such a daunting away game with such a weakened squad.

As well as Barton, Newcastle will also be forced to name Shola Ameobi among their substitutes, even though the striker failed a medical ahead of a proposed move to Ipswich Town last week because of a hamstring injury.

“I’ve got three kids to make up my 17 so I’ve got 14 senior players available and two of those, Joey Barton and Shola Ameobi will be on the bench,” said Keegan, who denied there was any rift between himself and the board regarding the sale of Milner.

“Joey is in the squad ahead of schedule, it’s probably a week to 10 days earlier than is ideal, but common sense will prevail with him, we just needed to have seven subs.”

Barton and Keegan will attend a FA disciplinary hearing on Friday to discover whether the 25-year-old will be banned for admitting an assault on his former Manchester City team-mate Ousmane Dabo during a training-ground incident last May. And, given Barton’s poor track record, the feeling is that he will be forced to spend even longer on the sidelines as the game’s governing body looks to use the incident as a means prove it will not tolerate any behaviour which brings the game into disrepute.

Keegan added: “We don’t know what is going to happen on September 5. A group of people have got to sit down at the FA and do whatever they’ve got to do. Some people think he might get 15 games, which sounds ridiculous, but it wouldn’t be unbelievable if he got a few games.

“His frame of mind is good though, there is no problem there. It’s quicker than we wanted, but he’s not going to start, he’s only going to play for 10 or 15 minutes at most.” Newcastle could at least make one more signing over the weekend after Keegan revealed he has been impressed with the Guinea defender Kamil Zayatte, who has been training with the club this week.

The 23-year-old, who has also been on trial at Everton this summer, plays for Swiss club Young Boys Berne and Keegan will urge the club to sign him after he impressed the coaching staff, not least because of his versatility.

Keegan said: “We have for or five irons in the fire. Two of those are pretty far down the line and there are another three who we maybe able to bring in before the deadline on Monday.

“Zamil is in the second category and I’ll have to speak to Dennis (Wise) and Tony (Jimenez) about him. We had him in training this morning and he certainly looks like someone who could improve us.

“He plays three or four positions and I like those sorts of players, so we’ll see where we go.”

Meanwhile, Keegan has warned supporters not to expect any new updates on Michael Owen’s contract in the next few days as all talks are on hold until after the close of the transfer window on Monday.

Owen can start to talk to other clubs in January under the Bosman rule and Keegan has previously expressed his frustration at the lack of progress.

He said: “We have decided to push contract negotiations to the back until we get through the transfer deadline. If we started doing things with Michael Owen and Steve Harper and took our eye off the transfer deadline we wouldn’t be doing our jobs properly.”

Meanwhile, a Newcastle bid to sign Hamburg’s former Tottenham left-back Thimothée Atouba appears to have fallen through.

According to the German Bundesliga side, the 26-year-old Cameroon international had been given permission to travel to Tyneside to undergo a medical yesterday but instead turned up at his current club’s training base and has been left out of their squad for the weekend game against Arminia Bielefeld.

A statement on Hamburg’s official website, www.hsv.de, read: “He [Atouba] originally wanted to travel to England on Friday to undergo a medical with Premier League club Newcastle United, but then surprisingly turned up at team training.

“Because the Cameroonian’s future is unclear, coach Martin Jol has removed him from the squad for (Arminia) Bielefeld.”

Atouba, capped 39 times by Cameroon, joined Spurs in 2004 but spent only one season at White Hart Lane, making 18 top-flight appearances.