10:30am Tuesday 13th January 2009
By Marc Iles
WANDERERS are refusing to pay a penny more than £2million for Joey Barton.
Gary Megson confirmed that the club have had a bid turned down by Newcastle United for the controversial midfielder and are now unlikely to pursue the transfer.
But he added that the club have no problem with the 26-year-old’s criminal past and would have welcomed him to the Reebok with open arms.
“The chairman phoned Newcastle the other day and bid £2million for him but that was turned down,” Megson said. “We move on.
“We have got other targets. Joey is a very good player, an ex-England international, but he has certainly had his problems. There is an amount that we would go to, and that’s it, we won’t go any further.”
News of Wanderers’ interest in former Manchester City man Barton had provoked a mixed reception from supporters, most of whom were worried that a return to the North-west, near to his native Liverpool, would make it easier for him to lapse back into bad behaviour.
The midfielder, capped once by England, is looking for a move away from Tyneside to help rebuild his career, which looked under serious threat after serving a 77-day prison sentence for common assault during the summer.
Megson insists he had no qualms about bringing Barton to play at Bolton.
“He is a good player,” the Whites boss said. “Obviously he has got baggage and I hope from his point of view that he has got over that, but purely on football terms we would be delighted to have him. Hopefully, everything else is a distant memory.”
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