No bid for City star Joe

[Scottish Mag 3]

Newcastle United will not be moving for Manchester City's controversial midfielder Joey Barton.

 

Manager Glenn Roeder does not want to bring in any player to St James' Park who has as much baggage as Barton.

 

Reports over the weekend and talk on Tyneside have suggested that United are ready to make a cut-price £1.5m offer for Barton, who has another 12 months of his contract to run at the City of Manchester Stadium.

 

But Roeder insists that this is not the case, and I believe that the United manager has another top Premiership midfielder in his sights.

 

And, quite frankly, after all the off-the-field headlines Barton has had in the past couple of years, nobody can blame United and Roeder for looking elsewhere.

 

Barton's agent is Willie McKay, and United are still ruing the last player they brought in from the Scotsman's stable - Jean Alain Boumsong.

 

United are hoping that their £8.5m defender has a good World Cup with France and that McKay can find Boumsong a new club before the season starts.

 

Meanwhile, Roeder will have to cross one name off his shortlist of candidates for the Academy manager's job vacated by himself at St James' Park.

 

Roeder admitted his admiration for Ipswich Town's Bryan Klug last week, and said he was the sort of Academy manager he was looking for.

 

But, as reported in The Chronicle on Wednesday, Ipswich are likely to appoint Klug as Director of Football to new manager Jim Magilton at Portman Road.

[Brock Manson 0]

At an alleged 1.5 million I think it'd be a worthy gamble meself...

[tinofbeans 91]

best player in a poor team tbh (city)....