A bragging Joey Barton reckons Manchester City's great start to the season wouldn´t have happened without his performances last season. This despite the fact that Barton now plies his trade for Newcastle United! Newcastle are rated at +105 odds by SportsBetting.com to beat Everton this weekend. With Everton in decent form, they look a better bet at +250 odds.
England midfielder Barton departed City for Newcastle in a £5.8million deal in the summer after a season battling relegation. However, things have taken a turn for the better following the takeover of Thaksin Shinawatra with Sven-Goran Eriksson in charge. City are now third in the Barclays Premier League.
"I hope they appreciate the job I did last season," said Barton earlier today speaking on BBC Radio. "Were it not for myself, Micah Richards and Richard Dunne the club wouldn't have had Shinawatra, the Premier League and Sven. I think they could easily have gone down last season but for a couple of results."
Barton hasn't made his debut for his new club since breaking a metatarsal in a pre-season friendly in the summer. He did recently play 45 minutes as Newcastle reserves drew 2-2 versus Manchester City reserves on Tuesday. Newcastle lost 3-1 at the City of Manchester Stadium in Premier league action and are in mid-table. Barton has no doubts he made the right move and says that following the takeover by Mike Ashley at Newcastle his new club are going places. Barton has a word of caution for the City fans despite their great start to the season.
"It is important they don't get too carried away with a couple of results," he added.
"Hopefully we'll get the kind of investment they got at Manchester City and get a similar result. I think Newcastle can be as big as they want to be. No disrespect to City but in Manchester, Manchester United will always be top dog. As much as they want to believe it, it is not going to be.
"The big thing about Newcastle is there is only Newcastle in Newcastle. Newcastle could be a big side and turn it from a big four into a big five."
Barton's first priority is to get back on the field with the Tottenham match on October 22 the objective. Barton added Newcastle World TV: "Me and the manager have different ideas on when I'm fit because I just can't wait to get back playing. I understand he doesn't want to take any risks and my next game will probably be for the reserves against Wigan next Monday. After that we've got two weeks when I can get some good work done on the training ground during the international break."
