Joseph the philosopher warrior has previous with upsetting people: he has a rap sheet almost as long as the list of clever books he reads before taking to Twitter, and he chose his silliest target as Newcastle head for relegation in 2009. Facing the difficult prospect of playing Liverpool, the cause wasn't helped when Barton took it upon himself to assault VXabi Alonso with an embarrassingly poor tackle that laid the Spaniard out. He was fined £65,000 for his silliness, but then details emerged that the midfielder had gone toe-to-toe with manager Alan Shearer:
Joey shouted at Alan that he was the best player at the club, which was why he had to play him. Alan said he wasnt, called him s*** and Joey replied that he was a s*** manager with s*** tactics. At that point, it looked like they were going to have a full-scale brawl and had to be dragged apart.
Shearer has previously said how much of an important player Barton could be in Newcastles fight against relegation, so his reaction to the red card was understandable. Barton's decision not to back down was just as inevitable.
