The life and crimes of Joey Barton - but is he football's biggest bad boy?
ByPA Sport
Updated 19/09/2016 at 20:24 GMT
After Joey Barton was suspended for three weeks by Rangers, we look back on his turbulent career and see where he ranks among football's serial offenders....
Joey Barton after the Celtic defeat
Image credit: Reuters
April 2004 – Storms out of Eastlands before kick-off after being axed from the Manchester City side to face Southampton.
July 2004 – Sparks a mass brawl in a pre-season "friendly" against Doncaster.
December 2004 – A Christmas bash for Manchester City players sees him stub a lit cigar into the eye of young team-mate Jamie Tandy. He is fined six weeks' wages by City.
May 2005 – Breaks the leg of a 35-year-old pedestrian while driving his car at 2am in Liverpool city centre.
June 2005 – Involved in a spat with a 15-year-old Everton fan at City's team hotel in Bangkok. Again he is fined by City.
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Manchester City-Arsenal Joey Barton
Image credit: Reuters
October 2006 – The bad blood with Everton fans continues in 2006 when he drops his shorts in the direction of home fans at Goodison Park. He is fined and warned by the FA for his conduct.
December 2006 – Blasts England players releasing autobiographies after an unsuccessful World Cup campaign. "England did nothing in the World Cup, so why are they bringing books out? 'We got beat in the quarter-finals, I played like s***, here's my book'. Who wants to read that? I don't," he says.
February 2007 - Makes his England debut against Spain, replacing Frank Lampard, one of the players he was thought to have aimed his earlier criticism at.
March 2007 – Arrested on suspicion of assault and criminal damage in an incident involving a taxi driver. He is alleged to have ripped out the cabbie's radio because he would not wait at a McDonald's drive-through while Barton got food. He is later found not guilty of vandalising the taxi. His cousin, Joshua Wilson, 19, admitted doing the damage.
Assault
May 2007 – Involved in a training ground incident with Manchester City team-mate Ousmane Dabo, who presses charges. Barton admits assault and in July 2008 is given a four-month suspended jail sentence. In November 2008 he is also given a six-match ban, with a further six suspended, after admitting an FA violent conduct charge relating to the incident.
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Barton is charged with assault following an accusation by former Manchester City team mate Ousmane Dabo that Barton attacked him last season.
Image credit: Reuters
June 2007 – Sold by City to Newcastle Utd for £5.8 million. Aims parting shot at City boss Stuart Pearce, blaming his departure on a "relationship breakdown" between the pair.
November 2007 – The press reacts furiously to a studs-up challenge on Sunderland's Dickson Etuhu during the Tyne-Wear derby. "Ban him" screams the News of the World headline. He escapes FA sanction.
December 2007 – Sits out Newcastle's Boxing Day game through injury, but goes drinking in Liverpool city centre afterwards. In the early hours of December 27 he gets into a row in a McDonald's and violence again breaks out. Drunk, Barton straddles his victim, punching him repeatedly in the face. He is refused bail and is forced to spend the New Year behind bars.
May 2008 - Admits assault and affray and is jailed for six months, of which he serves 74 days at Strangeways prison in Manchester,
November 2008 – Escapes FA action after an on-pitch incident involving Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor. Media reports claim Barton made a racial slur but Agbonlahor decides not to pursue disciplinary action.
May 2009 – Sent off on first game back from a long-term injury against Liverpool for a wild tackle on Xabi Alonso. Suspended by club following claims of a dressing-room row with manager Alan Shearer.
Violent conduct
November 2010 – Charged with violent conduct by the FA after allegedly punching Blackburn's Morten Gamst Pedersen during their Premier League match.
August 2011 – Admits "exaggerating" the contact made on him by Arsenal player Gervinho who was sent-off for hitting Barton.
August 2011 – Newcastle transfer-list Barton, making him available on a free transfer. Signed by QPR on a four-year deal.
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Tempers flare between Wolverhampton Wanderers' Karl Henry and Queens Park Rangers' Joey Barton in the final minutes, September 18 2011
Image credit: PA Sport
August 2011 – Goes on Twitter and television to criticise Wolves midfielder Karl (or Kelvin, as he called him) Henry's aggressive style of play. "No-one knew Kelvin Henry before he started kicking lumps out of me," said Barton.
October 2011 – Claims the FA tried to get him to moderate his language on social networking website Twitter before insisting he had no intention of doing so.
December 2011 – Dismisses comments made by Newcastle managing director Derek Llambias, who he calls owner Mike Ashley's "fat mate", and asks Llambias to take a lie detector test over the midfielder's exit from the club.
January 2012 – Is sent-off against Norwich City for headbutting Norwich's Bradley Johnson. The decision is vigorously contested by Barton but he loses his appeal.
'Shut it', Warnock
January 2012 – Launches an amazing attack on recently sacked QPR manager Neil Warnock, telling him to "shut it" and comparing him to hapless film character Mike Bassett.
January 2012 – Unleashes an online tirade against the FA, labelling them an "Orwellian organisation" in need of a "drastic shake-up".
February 2012 – Makes a series of online comments about John Terry ahead of his trial for an alleged racist remark but escapes prosecution from the Attorney General.
March 2012 – Hits out at QPR fans who booed him during a poor performance against Liverpool.
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Barton and Warnock (left)
Image credit: Reuters
May 2012 – Banned for 12 matches by the FA for his red card at Manchester City and subsequent behaviour. Barton was sent-off for elbowing Manchester City's Carlos Tevez and was later found guilty of kneeing Sergio Aguero from behind then headbutting Vincent Kompany.
June 2012 – Is punched in the face after getting embroiled in an altercation with two men in Liverpool city centre.
June 2012 – Is fined six weeks wages and stripped of the club captaincy by QPR after being sent off for elbowing Carlos Tevez in the final match of the season against Manchester City.
January 2013 – Involved in Twitter row with former Germany midfielder Dietmar Hamann - calling him a "maggot" and a "dog" after Loic Remy decided to move to QPR and not Newcastle.
'Rodgers having a mid-life crisis'
April 2013 – His loan club Marseille are forced to apologise to PSG after Barton gets involved in a Twitter row with Thiago Silva, calling him an "overweight ladyboy".
August 2016 – Says that newly appointed Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers of having a "mid-life crisis" in a radio interview.
September 2016 – Barton is sent away from the Rangers training ground after an alleged altercation with Any Halliday, a team-mate, following a 5-1 defeat by Old Firm rivals Celtic. Later apologises "unreservedly" on Twitter.
September 2016 – Is suspended by Rangers for three weeks after having a meeting with manager Mark Warburton. When asked if he is still a Rangers player by a reporter, he responds: "I think so."
So where does he rank with other bad boys?
A few years ago, we published a list of the Top 10 football bad boys, where Barton finished in the top three. Here are the top two from our list...
Robin Friday
The former Reading and Cardiff midfielder was a party animal who raged against authority and abused drugs. He came from the toughest of backgrounds (including a spell in Borstal) before rising through the ranks of non-league football and shining for Reading, but was offloaded by the club for his drug habit and joined Cardiff.
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Robin Friday
Image credit: Eurosport
His stint with the Bluebirds did not start well: he was caught travelling on a train without a ticket on his first day as Cardiff player, and had to be bailed out by his new manager.
Though he did well on the pitch he continued to hit the headlines for the wrong reasons off it, including (there's no nice way of saying this) pooing in Mark Lawrenson's kit bag. Memorably, he also tried to destroy a hotel snooker room in the early hours of the morning by flinging balls around the room while standing on the table dressed only in his underpants.
His woes continued after he left the game, and he served a spell in prison for impersonating a police officer in order to confiscate other people's drugs.
Tragically, Friday died aged 38 of a massive heart-attack allegedly after a heroin overdose. He was later immortalised on the cover of a hit single released by indie band Super Furry Animals called "The man don't give a f***".
Gavin Grant
Former Millwall player Gavin Grant shot and killed Leon Labastide in Harlesden, North West London, back in 2004, a murder that was one of a spate of tit-for-tat shootings on the notorious Stonebridge Park Estate.
The court was told at the time that the incident took place in the wake of a burglary which saw three women terrorised and £20,000 of drug money taken. The incident is thought to have led to a string of 30 shootings in the area.
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Gavin Grant
Image credit: PA Photos
Grant was not a professional footballer at the time of the killing, signing for Gillingham in 2005 before joining Millwall a year later.
He went on to play for sides including Wycombe Wanderers and Bradford City before his crime caught up with him, and he is currently serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 25 years.
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