Barton escapes jail

The midfielder, capped once by England, was given a four-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to do 200 hours community service after admitting to punching Ousmane Dabo, 31, during an argument at training.

Barton, 25, is already serving a six-month sentence for an attack on a group of people outside a Liverpool branch of McDonald's on Boxing Day last year.

Today's sentence has been suspended for two years. Barton has also been given a nine-month supervision order and ordered to pay £6,500 costs, with £3,000 going to his victim.

>>guardian.co.uk

And hopefully there draws a line under this whole saga - one that now of course doesn't even involve a player any longer at the club.

Despite all of his protestations since the incident, Barton changed his plea at the last minute - which avoided him being handed down a further sentence on top of the one he is currently serving for this incident, something The Daily Mail I'm sure would question.

Barton is expected to be released from prison fairly shortly, and Newcastle have announced they intend to have 'discussions' with him - rumours range from sacking him through to cutting his wages, but it is fair to say that his career has pretty much fallen apart at this point, considering that eighteen months ago he appeared to have seemingly resolved off-field issues, and was forging a reputation as a leader of the City side and gaining international honours.

As he walks free from prison in the foreseeable future, all that of course is now history and he must surely consider himself lucky to even have a semblance of a career he can attempt to salvage.