Alan Pardew's plea to protect Joey Barton
Posted Friday, August 19, 2011 by Dailystar.co.uk
Above: Joey Barton on the floor after his bust-up against Arsenal last weekend
Alan Pardew has pleaded with referee Howard Webb to protect Joey Barton.
Newcastle boss Pardew fears his firebrand midfielder will be a target for Sunderland in the white-hot
atmosphere of tomorrow’s Wear-Tyne derby.
And Pardew has told Webb – who takes charge in front of a 48,000 Stadium of Light sell-out – to forget Barton’s
bad-boy antics over the years to ensure he gets a fair crack of the whip from the World Cup Final ref.
The Newcastle boss risked upsetting FA discipline chiefs by discussing a referee before a game when hinting that
the Black Cats will look to wind-up the combustible star.
He said: “In a (Sunderland) gameplan, Joey would get a mention, if I’m honest, so the referee needs to make sure he referees the game from a completely neutral point of view.
“He needs to be astute. There are characters on both sides and fiery ones at that.
“I don’t need to tell Joey. Joey will tell me probably. He’ll tell me today, maybe tomorrow, tomorrow evening and Saturday – he’ll tell me ‘they’ll target me today, gaffer’.
“I mean that in the nicest possible way, I might add.
I’m sure Lee Cattermole will be saying the same for them. He’s a fiery character.
“Him and Joey are going to be in the same sort of area and it’ll be a feature of the game.”
Pardew admits Barton can be his own worst enemy after being dumped on the transfer list this month for
questioning Toon’s ambition under multi-millionaire owner Mike Ashley.
The Scouser again found himself the centre of attention in the opening day draw with Arsenal.
His blatant play-acting helped earn Gervinho a red card after the Toon star had been stamped on by Alex
Song to earn the Gunners midfielder a three-game ban.
After outstanding displays in last season’s two North- East derbies, Pardew wants the former England international
to let his football do the talking.
He added: “The thing Sunderland will focus on is that Joey’s a very good player and they’ll need to stop him.
Probably that’s more of a worry for Steve Bruce.
“I’ve got no qualms about throwing Joey in there, no doubt at all.”
Pardew had hoped to have a forward and a left-back in ahead of the derby clash.
But he has been frustrated in his bids for Sochaux’s Mali international forward Modibo Maiga, PSV leftback Eric Pieters and Lyon defender Aly Cissokho.
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