Ex-con is a highly sought after commodity, apparently

Last week, Spoiler readers voted that Joey Barton should never be allowed to play football again, a decision that probably would have been unanimous save for the loyal Newcastle supporters who have been put in the troubling position of having to defend the malicious young Orbison-alike.

Unfortunately, Newcastle have had little choice but to stand by their £5.8m investment, but people with a vague sense of morality were shocked to learn that up to three other clubs were waiting in the wings to snap him up if King Kev decided not to expose the rest of his squad to grievous bodily harm. So who were these clubs?

The Spoiler believes they may have been Bolton (Megson said it was a pleasure to work with Anelka and will generally take anyone he can get), Sunderland (they just signed El-Hadji Diouf so no one is off limits), Blackburn (Paul Ince used to work for Franchise FC, so he clearly has no conscience) and perhaps West Ham (who were challenging Newcastle for his signature last summer).

Anyone else have any ideas? Let us know below…