oey Barton On Verge Of Rejecting Newcastle Offer?

Joey Barton On Verge Of Rejecting Newcastle Offer?

11:09 am, Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011 by Ed Harrison · 54 Comments

It’s not good news this morning for Newcastle United, as it looks we could lose Joey Barton, after the club have offered him their last contract deal, and have presumably told him to take it or leave it.

Joey Barton – willing to take £1M a year wage cut

We hope this is not the case.
The Daily Mail is reporting that Newcastle have told Joey Barton about their latest contract offer, to just take it or leave it.
And the report suggests Barton was willing to take a £1M a year pay cut, to extend his career at Newcastle United, but Joey wanted a three year extension to the deal but it seems the club will only offer him a two year extension to his current contract, which runs out next summer.
We thought Joey was on £65K/week with his current deal,  which is around £3.38M a year – so if he’s been offered £2.38M a year – that’s around £46K/week.
How on earth can anybody live on that – especially in an expensive place like Newcastle?
We had seen a similar report earlier this week, but were not sure if there was any truth to it, but if this is indeed true, it’s hardly  good news.
The very last thing we want to happen is to lose Joey Barton this summer, and apparently Hamburg are only too willing to take him for a cut fee price of £2.5M. Who wouldn’t?
Barton is said to be disappointed with the offer, as he had hoped a lower wage could be compensated somewhat by a longer contract.
And Alan Pardew had himself indicated that would be the offer made to Joey – lower wages but an extended time-frame.
Barton’s representative Willie McKay said today:

‘Joey just wants to get his head down and concentrate on his performances. He is determined to build on his displays this season and push himself back into the England reckoning.’

Willie’s statement doesn’t shed much light on the contract situation, and it seems an old quote too – but it’s included in the Mail – and we hope this report is inaccurate, because there were hints Joey would sign his new contract this week.
But if there are indeed hitches, this will hardly go down well with Newcastle fans, as Barton is a key player in any success Newcastle can have in the next few seasons.
And after all he is willing to take a fairly substantial wage cut.
It’s fine to be savvy with the financials at the Newcastle club, but we cannot and shouldn’t go too far the other way, otherwise the club will never be able to attract top players to Newcastle – or keep them.
Comments welcome.