Newcastle’s new generation are prospering quietly while a recently-departed hero continues to generate his own headlines. Mark Douglas considers whether Newcastle are in better shape without Joey Barton
BREAKING up is hard to do, as Newcastle United fans will testify.
Having endured messy splits from Kevin Nolan and Andy Carroll over the past few months it was the bitter parting with Joey Barton some three weeks ago that left sizeable swathes of the Toon Army in heartbroken turmoil.
It wasn’t just the loss of a cult hero that troubled United’s support though, there was also the pressing question of who was left to stoke the fires in the midfield engine room following his big money move to Loftus Road.
Well events of the past few days prove Newcastle are over it and ready to move on stronger than ever. Indeed it is starting to look like the club is much better off for ditching him.
If that sounds strange given Barton’s obvious influence for new club QPR at Molineux over the weekend, consider the tiresome fall-out from his continuing spat with Karl Henry – the midfield enforcer he first tangled with in a Newcastle shirt. A goal for United’s former number seven and a 3-0 win for his new side was completely overshadowed by some crass Tweets posted in the aftermath of the victory.
A feud that was ramped up by Barton’s incendiary appearance on Sky’s Goals On Sunday programme the following day.
To quote Barton’s favourite band The Smiths: “Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before”.
Now whatever you think of Henry, labelling a fellow professional a “Sunday league player” in public is crossing a line that most footballers wouldn’t dare to breach, not that Barton seemed to care much as he again revelled in the spotlight.
Forty-eight hours of furore was whipped up by a man who then had the temerity to complain, late on Tuesday evening, that everyone was still talking about it. Quite simply Barton had made himself the centre of things again – swiping the headlines from a team performance that was, by all accounts, excellent.
While this hurricane of hypocrisy and hype was raging through Wolverhampton and the White City, Newcastle quietly took the wraps off a new generation of midfielders ready to fill the vacuum left by Barton. And for those in attendance, it was an encouraging exercise.
For while Hatem Ben Arfa’s pleasing return was eye-catching enough to take the headlines, it was the displays of Sylvain Marveaux and debutant Mehdi Abeid that proved there is substance to the cross-channel recruitment drive headed up by Graham Carr and orchestrated in part by Pardew.
