PLAYER PROFILE

Joey Barton

Position: Midfield

Height: 5'9

Weight: 11st 0lbs

Date of Birth: 1982-09-02 Huyton, England

Joey Barton

Despite an inauspicious start to his Barclaycard Premiership career, young Joey Barton always looked like being a star-in-the-making for Manchester City.

However, he was left with a red face when he was given his first chance to make an impact on the first team in November 2002. When Kevin Keegan signalled for the youngster to get ready to come on and make his debut, Barton could not find his shirt, which had been stolen after he had put it down in the dug-out.

After that embarassing and frustrating setback, Barton could have been forgiven for trying to hide his face for a while, but he fought hard and earned a second chance, which he took with aplomb. He scored his first goal in April 2003 at White Hart Lane and signed a new deal, significantly higher than his original £500-a-week contract.

The midfielder progressed during the 2003/04 campaign, and scored his second goal for the club in their 3-2 victory over Blackburn Rovers in August. He was rewarded for some excellent performances with a call up to the England Under-21 squad for their Euro 2004 qualifiers.

After that Barton was in and out of the starting line-up for the rest of the campaign. He picked up several bookings and was sent off at half time in City's mammoth comeback FA Cup game against Tottenham. With ten men at half time, they came back from 3-0 down to win 4-3 - but without Barton.

The 2004/05 season saw him cement his place in the City squad. He made 33 appearances all in all, only missing October through a knee injury. He scored twice.

A low-point came in the shape of an incident at the club's Christmas party. He poked a cigar into the eye of teammate Jamie Tandy after allegedly being provoked by Tandy. Barton was fined six weeks wages and Tandy two weeks'.

He was never far away from controversy in 2005/06 either, with his decision in January 2006 to hand in a transfer request earning him criticism from the club's fans and Stuart Pearce. He reversed his decision and continued to be a regular for City, though the issue of his future remained unsolved until July 2006 when he finally signed a new deal.

A year later though, it was all different. The final straw for Barton at City came when he was involved in a training ground fight with team-mate Ousmane Dabo, leaving the Frenchman needing hospital treatment and Barton suspended by his own club. In June 2007 he left City to sign for Newcastle United for £5.5m.