Newcastle appeared willing to tolerate Barton's 77 day stint in prison in 2008 for punching a man twenty times, after which Barton confessed to being an alcoholic and at a time when several football figures were urging Newcastle to terminate Barton's contract, but drew the line at his latest thinly veiled criticism of the club on Twitter.
Much of the trouble emanating from Newcastle stems from the decision to cash in on Andy Carroll in January for £35 million. Although considered a blow, the deal represented an inflated figure due to the time constraints in last January's window and Liverpool's need to sign a striker. Although following the sale the assertion from Alan Pardew was that all of the money was to be reinvested in the playing squad.
Fast forward six months and to the majority of Newcastle supporters the club has become even weaker, with the popular club captain Kevin Nolan sold to recently relegated West Ham. With Mike Ashley again failing to discuss the club's policy it was left to Pardew to weakly suggest that 'the club' didn't feel that Nolan was worth a new five-year contract at roughly £60,000 a week.
At 29 there is some sense in such a statement and it probably wouldn't have made financial sense to have a player earning such high wages when into his 30s, but a football clubs success is down to far more than being financial astute. Football clubs are no ordinary businesses and the effect of losing the captain and a major character in the Newcastle dressing room, not to mention the effect it has on fans up and down the country, was something that wasn't granted any consideration.
Enrique's criticism of the board for the sales of Nolan and Carroll and subsequent lack of reinvestment last week led to a £100,000 fine. Barton's increasingly vocal discontent also saw him land a two week fine, but Barton was also publicly transfer listed and made available on a free by the Newcastle hierarchy, who were unable to stomach such public dissent.
Rather than rap their player of the year on the knuckles for expressing his mire in 140 characters, Mike Ashley seems willing to take a loss on a player who this window would have been worth a figure of at least £5million and was edging closer to adding to his solitary full England cap.
The fans have fallen alongside the man convicted of assault, with chants of "Ashley, Ashley sign him up" from recent friendlies indicating on whose side the majority of fans appear to be. A further protest against the management at the club looks set for Newcastle's final home friendly against Fiorentina this weekend, where there is a good chance the supporters will be every bit as vocal in their criticism of the upper echelons of the club as social networks have allowed their players to be in recent weeks.
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