Don’t drum Joey Barton out of football. We don't want role models, we want players - cold and rugged - some of the best players make the most snooze-worthy interviewees in the world, and a game that has all the wild men removed would be tepid and grey.

The Daily Mail's hyperventilating readership would have you believe that Barton and his lascivious footballing colleagues are taking apart English society one brick at a time. Yes, he isn't particularly charismatic or likeable – yes, he has been sentenced to six months in jail. But I smell the essential hypocrisy that led Duncan Ferguson to spend six weeks in Barlinnie Prison for head butting a player but let Zinedine Zidane mope off into the World Cup horizon after essentially doing the same.

Image is everything these days, Robbie Savage isn't a habitual red-card gatherer, Thomas Gravesen isn't a tough tackling midfielder, but what people think is often more important than the truth.

'We don't want role models, we want players - cold and rugged'


Barton has a list of offences as long as his arm, but a ban wouldn't be right; sprinter Dwain Chambers - a proven drug cheat for taking steroids in a sport that is totally centred around raw speed - has still managed to worm his way back into the sport, and has even fought to have his Olympic ban overturned.

How can Barton be banned for off-field antics - things that are outside the world of football? Admittedly, the FA doesn't condone the things he has done, and he - like all players - will be punished for fouls and on-field assaults. But Barton's footballing misdemeanours don't represent a piercing of the basic principles of the game, like insider betting (Tony Kay) or taking drugs (Billy Kenny) or even assaulting a fan INSIDE a stadium (Eric Cantona).

I'm afraid that the powers that be don't really have a leg to stand on with Barton. A ban from the sport would be incredibly harsh given what other players have done like the ankle-tagged Jermaine Pennant, and Lee Hughes – jailed for death by dangerous driving. Even if Newcastle do eventually let Barton go, market forces will take him to another club.

I have no doubt that Barton will learn his lesson. I just hope he learns it whilst he is young enough to still play and it doesn’t take until he is retired to see what possibilities he is frittering away.