Exclusive: Joey Barton Turned Down Transfer To Sunderland?

The Football Insider, we always make sure they are verified and checked before we publish them. And our track record is 100% solid as you will have seen from the various news outlets who have taken our stories into the wider media and in some cases, got official quotes from the club. But this one we couldn't get absolute confirmation on but let me just talk you briefly through the run of events of the past week for you to make up your own mind... We were told earlier in the week that there was genuine interest from Steve Bruce in taking the free transfer listed Joey Barton to Newcastle's fierce North East rivals Sunderland before the end of the transfer window. Having made a dozen transfers over the summer and snapping up the out of contract players David Vaughn and Sebastian Larsson, we heard Bruce wanted to similarly bring in Barton to boost his battling midfield with an experienced Premiership workhorse that would bring with him no fee. We were told at the time there was definitive interest in Barton but 'no concrete offer had been made yet', perhaps because Sunderland were a little wary over bringing in a disruptive influence that has done little but proclaim his love for 'the enemy' over the summer and who was booed and heckled at every opportunity in the North East derby last weekend. The player is after all so synonymous with Newcastle.... would the Mackem faithful be able to swallow it? In the end we didn't publish the story as 'interest' is such a loose term and can mean a lot of different things. I have 'interest' in an iPad but I can't see me being one in the next few years. Then with QPR announcing the signing of the player yesterday, the situation seemed to be put to bed. Or so we thought. Our eyebrows were certainly raised this morning when we spotted an interview with the BBC where Barton said the following;

"There was interest in other clubs. Some of them I could do and some of them I couldn't do."

And then with a cheeky smile...

"If I had gone there, I probably would have been lynched"

Lynched! There is only one club we could think of that would have bring that kind of fury from either supporters if he had gone there and that would be to Sunderland. So was an offer in the end made to Joey Barton to make the incredible move across to Sunderland, where he is quite right he probably would have been dead before the end of the month? Or is Barton simply telling us what we got couldn't get confirmed earlier this week that Sunderland were interesting in bringing in Barton but themselves were concerned about making an offer? Make up your own mind but isn't it curious to consider how close Barton might have been to making one of the most sensational transfers over the summer...