Barton let club down, says City chairman

SEETHING Manchester City chairman John Wardle has accused disgraced midfielder Joey Barton of letting the club down.

Wardle handed the former England Under-21 star a record six-week fine after an internal investigation found Barton guilty of gross misconduct at a players’ Christmas party in Manchester on Sunday, when he poked a lighted cigar into the eye of young team-mate Jamie Tandy.

While 20-year-old Tandy, who has yet to make a first team appearance and is currently sidelined after a knee operation, has not escaped censure either after attempting to set fire to Barton’s fancy dress costume, City officials have left no doubt as to who they feel was mostly to blame for the club’s good name being dragged through the mud.

Barton, who has apologised both in private and public, will be forced to pay four weeks’ salary - approximately £60,000 - immediately, with the rest of the penalty suspended, while Tandy’s entire two-week fine - around £2,500 - will be waived if he stays out of trouble for another 12 months.

“We have been let down badly, the events of Sunday evening seriously fell below the high standards we expect and demand at this football club. They were totally out of order and completely unacceptable,” Wardle said.

City boss Kevin Keegan sat stony-faced alongside Wardle as the damning verdict was delivered, no doubt reflecting on how he will tame a player who seemed to have dropped the right side of the disciplinary tightrope after a series of transgressions over the past 12 months.

Barton’s dismissal for abusing referee Rob Styles in an FA Cup tie at Tottenham in February was largely forgotten amid the jubilation at City’s 4-3 comeback win.

His decision to angrily storm out of Eastlands two months later prior to a Premiership clash against Southampton after learning he had been axed brought the first public rebuke from his manager, although that was nothing compared to the stinging attack that followed an ill-advised lunge on Leo Fortune-West during a pre-season friendly at Doncaster that sparked an ugly 10-man brawl.

Keegan warned Barton he needed to grow up quickly and a succession of impressive performances during the early part of the current campaign, during which he picked up only two bookings and earned himself a two-year contract extension suggested some harsh lessons had been learned.

That was until Sunday at the Lucid nightclub when he went way beyond the boundaries of acceptable behaviour in his clash with Tandy.

Wardle confirmed there had never been any question of Barton being dismissed over the incident and that he was available to face his boyhood idols Everton at Goodison Park on St Stephen’s Day.

“I said I wanted this matter dealing with swiftly and that is what we have done,” said Wardle.