BAD boy Joey Barton could be on his way out of Manchester City.
He will be targeted by Birmingham boss Steve Bruce to replace Blackburn-bound Robbie Savage.
An offer of '3million from Bruce would be enough to take the former England under-21 midfielder from Sportcity. A Brum move would be a welcome boost for City boss Kevin Keegan who was livid about the horrendous Christmas party incident when Barton poked a lighted cigar into the eye of young player Jamie Tandy.
Barton, 22, was fined a club record '60,000 after being found guilty of gross misconduct at Manchester's Lucid nightclub. The board even considered sacking Barton over the headline-grabbing incident that also led to 20-year-old Tandy being fined two weeks wages for his "misconduct" in setting alight Barton's Jimmy Saville fancy dress garb.
As well as a move for Barton, City are bracing themselves for a renewed Newcastle bid for skipper Sylvain Distin.
A '5m offer from Graeme Souness, as revealed by M.E.N. Sport earlier this week, has already been turned down, but it is expected that the Geordies will be back with an increased bid once the transfer window opens tomorrow.
Imaginative
City chairman John Wardle, who publicly condemned Barton's behaviour, has told Keegan he needs to be "imaginative" in his January wheeling and dealing to revive the inconsistent squad.
Savage, 30, wants to move closer to his family in Wales and has already been the subject of one '2.2m offer from his ex-international boss Mark Hughes at Blackburn.
Brum owner David Sullivan has threatened to report Rovers for an illegal approach for Savage and could ask the Premier League to check phone records.
Meanwhile, Brum chairman David Gold expects Newcastle to make another bid to land Bruce as boss if results under Souness don't improve.
Do you think City should let Barton go? Have your say.
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hell no!!!!!
Barton is a young lad with great potential, maybe even as good as Gerrard in time. B#3m? Be serious!!!!!
At least B#5m, but if City have any ambition at all they should stop selling off younger players.
How about a straight swap for Savage. It would solve everyone's problems in one swoop.
Reported in the Daily Mirror before anybody gets excited. And Newcastle have just signed Boumsong from Rangers so Distin will be staying put as well.
Surely not again. You know where he comes from, an area in Scouseland that didn't just produce Gerrard and Rooney, but one or two rude people as well. A team needs an aggressive character in midfield, even a rogue, for his positive qualities. Do you think Savage, Keane, even our long-lost Michael Brown, have not made a few enemies in their own clubs, but they still make a massive impact when it comes to playing. These players become essential to making their teams tick. Once Joey realises that he can't pass like Glenn Hoddle, or even Thomas Gravesen (who should be his role model), then I wouldn't want to see him out of the team. For years.
Steve Bruce, keep away. City didn't like you before, and don't want to see you now. Stick to buying aging has-beens, to stop Keegan buying them, and leave our young players alone. Happy New Year, and hopefully Birmingham will be relegated as well.
No No NO NO!! We cannot afford to lose a player like Barton.He's one of our best midfield players. And just who do we sign to replace him....GULP!
Unfortunately money talks and a reported B#3 million for a whole heap of trouble I'm afraid speaks too loudly.
Yes he brings heart and determination but his passing is poor and he has recently had as many bad games as good. My one concern would be what would happen to the money. Don't fancy another 32 year old + on a 3 year deal.
Finally Barton being a scouser is the only similarity to Steven Gerrard. He will never be in the same league as Gerrard
About time-this lad has been stealing a living off the club since he got in the team. His enthusiasm cannot be faulted, but how man times has it cost us, he rarely scores and more often than not is involved in giving the ball awy just before the opposition score-swap him for Savage, a man with aggression, enthusiasm AND can also score goals, rather than give them away.
C'mon guys, First SWP, then Anelka then Dunne, Then Distin now Joey, all being linked with a move away from COMS. Are we a selling club? We might be in debt but how are we supposed to prosper if we sell all our players?
Joey Saville' stay put son.
What a ludicrous story. KK's made some mistakes but even he wouldn't sell our only sub 30 central midfeilder, for B#3m or B#6m for that matter. The usual sloppy journalism from the MEN taking 1 and 2 and making 7. As for Distin, B#5m for him I'd take and buy Andy Reid.
Why don't we get a statement from the chairman stating who is going & who is staying? If we start letting these players start to go where will this leave SWP what ambition are we showing to him? I think a big statement was made in Tuesdays programme we got a 2005 calendar Where was a Anelka, need I say more!
They better not sell him -if we become a selling club i won,t be renewing my season tickets next season!!!!!!!!!!
James, Onuoha, Dunne, Distin, Jordan, BARTON, Wright-Phillips, Anelka & Fowler (when on form). Add two new faces and you have got a decent starting eleven to last a good few years. We could sell Barton to make a bit of cash to buy a left sided / creative midfielder however when Bosvelt retires we will have no holding midfielder and we will be stuck in the same situation. Start looking for long term solutions and not short term. With Flood, BWP, Croft and the rest of the academy coming through the future looks bright blue for City so lets not throw it away for short term answers. Keegan might be happy with a short term solutions because he is gone in 18 months but us fans will be around forever. The only way we could justify getting rid of Barton would be to bring in an "end to end" midfielder who can defend, create and score but the only two in the league currently play in Liverpool and London and I don't think either club would give them up for 3 million. We spend too much time looking at who we need rather than looking at who we have got and being grateful. Like I said, we are 2 players off a decent first eleven.
Who'd be a City fan. We constantly have to read in the press that other clubs want to buy our star players, thus pushing us into the "not a big club" category. There are no reports of other clubs wanting Mcmanaman, Bosvelt, Sinclair, Reyna, Sibierski or any of the other mediocre players we have an abundance of. We love our home-grown players and should be allowed to keep them.
Bring back Bernstein & Bird.. They had the club going forward. How long after they were gone did it take for us plunge to this depth... we were a club going forward... If the present board are concerned about the club "that I have been watching and have loved for over 35 years" and not just themselves, they should get rid of Keegan now so we can yet again move on because until he goes we just stand still. We are the most loyal fans in the country, but how long do you expect that to last... Keep Barton
Now I know Wardle is useless. He turned down a 5 million offer for Distin from Newcastle!
It saddens me to know that we have a complete football no brainer as our Chairman. Just watch him sell Joey and compound his error. If that happens we really will be in trouble.Keegan is posioning this great club and getting the soft touch Wardle to help him do it.
Oh yes it's all true.
Anelka to Liverpool, Disten and Dunne to Newcastle, SWP to Arsenal, and Barton to Birmingham.
At least we'll still have McManaman, Sommeil and Reyna.
Come on M.E.N. our financial problems are only going to go away by staying in the Premier league and winning something. We need to bring in a left winger, hopefully a creative one, we can't AFFORD to sell our best players.
Whether we like it or not City are now a selling club,they have to be being B#60M in debt but who caused that situation? Keegan of course. If Barton does leave we'll have no decent player in midfield,ok SWP is being utilised in different positions so the alarming lack of service to the front men will get even worse selling one of our best players. I honestly believe Keegan has had it in for Joey for some time now and the infamous cigar incident is just the excuse for Keegan to offload him.Who'll be next? Anelka? perhaps Distin? it could be SWP. City are in grave danger now of seeing their loyal long suffering supporters drifting away in their droves and its all down to Keegan,in the meantime lets just hope its another MUEN exercise!!!!
Now that the Transfer window opens there will be a lot of stories about transfers, some will be true, others just stories made up by the media.
Best take no notice unless it really happens.
We could swap Barton For Savage , manchesters just as close to wales as blackburn.
We are a selling club. We are not big enough or wealthy enough to be a buying club. I just wish we got a decent price for our players and stop selling on the cheap. Although with some that we bought it just goes to show how much over the odds we paid (i.e. Anelka).
Get rid- we should try and get more than 3m though now that it looks as though Distin wont be joining newcastle (unfortunately).
Barton is improving all the time and had it not been for his none selection and injury we would be way over the 30 point mark.
I put Joey in the same bracket as Scotty Parker who Charlton sold for 10 mill.
Barton has leadership qualities on the field even at his young age and his energy is vital to the team.
Keegan rates Barton very highly even though he can be a bit of a scally and the manager has gone on record over this.
Joey MUST stay at City, regardless of his shameful antics