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Nathan Holmes

Joey Barton:

This (not so) Charming Man

Joey Barton loves Morrissey. His Twitter timeline is littered with quotes from The Smiths. But it seems as though Barton is taking his love a little too literally.

Big Mouth Strikes Again, The Boy With The Thorn In His Side, Sweet And Tender Hooligan. All of these The Smiths songs could be disclaimers for Joey Barton.

Queens Park Rangers has stripped him of the captaincy and fined him six-weeks wages following his elbow on Carlos Tevez, kick to Sergio Agüero and headbutt attempt at Vincent Kompany on the final day of last season. He has accepted that he was wrong and “the punishment that has been imposed upon me.”

He also tweeted an apology whilst on holiday: "I was reckless and deserved every punishment I received. Money comes and goes, it's not important to me. Losing the captaincy and missing 12 games, is what really hurts.

“I was stupid and that what happens when u do dumb things. I am confident ill bounce back. Cannot wait. That's all I have to say on the matter. I wish to put it behind me now and help QPR, once available of course, push on towards the top half."

But we’ve heard these half-hearted apologies before for previous misdemeanors. Now The Smiths songs such as Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before and That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore seem entirely more pertinent.

Joey Barton is a man who has been given too many second chances and while many of his outbursts on Twitter are hilariously ludicrous ("Why do people always want to solve any conflict with a fight?" he

asked, without a hint of irony, "As a pacifist, I find it incredible"), the serial violence he has shown in the past and on the pitch is deplorable and should carry a significantly heavier ban than the ones imposed on him by the Football Association and Queens Park Rangers.

The 29-year-old is a serial offender who has already been cast out of Manchester City and Newcastle United. His well-publicised violent behaviour started with putting a lit cigar into the eye of a youth team player when he was at City. It continued with an attack on team-mate Ousmane Dabo and a fight with a teenager in Liverpool city centre. More recently, he was arrested and released on bail following a fight with two men after a night out.

The unprecedented 12-game ban he has been given is a start, but it needs to be compounded by a form of community service, or an attempt at rehabilitation. There is no good in him just sitting at home, all that does is give him more time to copy and paste Nietzsche quotes from the Internet.

QPR will stick to their declaration that Barton has just one more chance; in fact, they would like to get rid of him now only it would cost them too much and no one is going to pay for him. If Barton is wise he will do his utmost to keep in line, if he doesn’t and QPR release him, arguably no club will take a risk on him given his £75,000 a week wages. And heaven knows he’ll be miserable then.