Newcastle United midfielder’s agent slams ‘disgraceful’ antics of the press: But why are reporters following him in the first place?

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It’s not as if Newcastle United are short of problems right now. Kevin Keegan has walked away from the manager’s post for the second time, the owner seems to be completely clueless when it comes to running a football club and the fans are on the verge of boycotting the Magpies’ next match. However, they’re in the headlines again for the wrong reason, with an agent hitting out at the tabloid hacks.

Poor old Joey Barton, he’s just misunderstood. Or at least that’s what Willie McKay would have you believe, according to The Guardian. He reckons that certain newspaper reporters are overstepping the mark by following the Newcastle midfielder everywhere he goes, it’s not as if the player is likely to start a fight with a traffic warden or anything?!

Pictures in the Daily Mirror show the Newcastle United star’s Range Rover Sport using bus lanes to pass vehicles on the inside lane in Newcastle city centre.

Willie McKay, Barton’s representative, said he was unaware of the details of the incident but questioned the actions of the photographer who took the pictures. “Why are they following him? It is a disgrace. What would you do if people followed you in a car?” he said. “What is the guy meant to do? He doesn’t know who is in the car, does he?”

McKay confirmed Barton would face a personal hearing today but said he hoped his client would soon be able to put the incident behind him. “I expect a guy that has committed a crime and has done his time now and the Government has set rules and regulations that you do your crime and do your time, after that they want you to be rehabilitated.

“I think if it was Joe Bloggs on the street, he would not even have got that and enough is enough, to tell you the truth,” he said. “People follow him and hound him in his apartment block. Who do these people think they are to hound people for a story for a newspaper? It doesn’t happen in America.”

Most people think that Barton is bloody lucky not to have been sacked by Newcastle, following his thuggish attack on a teenager in Liverpool’s city centre. If he wasn’t a footballer, it’s likely that he would be serving a much longer jail sentence and the FA should make sure that he’s suitably punished for a cowardly attack on his former Man City team-mate.

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