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Joey Barton is bristling.

The former Newcastle United midfielder has been out of the game since July, when he was banned by the FA for gambling offences. But he’s hardly disappeared: a burgeoning career as an erudite and occasionally eviscerating pundit, a fascinating new podcast, an audiobook version of his excellent autobiography and a speaking tour which takes in a date in Gateshead have kept him in the public eye as he awaits a return to football next season.

(Image: PA)

And it is that that is keeping him going. “I’m living day to day – I just can’t wait to get back,” he says.

But when he decides where to go when his suspension is lifted, one destination will certainly be off the agenda. Newcastle United is one of the clubs where he feels he has “unfinished business” but as long as the current owner remains, there will be no chance to return to a club where he would have happily ended his career if given the chance.

He knows this for a fact: “Steve McClaren wanted me to go back. That was the year I joined Burnley – he asked me to come back but Mike Ashley said you can have anybody but him!” he said.

“It was good to know I made that an impression on him (Ashley) because the feeling is definitely mutual.”

Barton spoke in the week that the Chronicle chronicled the story of one of Newcastle’s best ever comebacks: the 4-4 draw against Arsenal in which Barton was instrumental in turning the tide against Arsene Wenger’s side.

The depth of feeling he has for the club remains. The antipathy towards the owner has not subsided either.

Speaking about the club’s current status – battling for survival in a divison which they have only just won promotion to – he notes that the strange decision to run the club’s transfer budget along austerity lines after supporting Rafa Benitez during promotion is typical of an owner who “just doesn’t understand football”.

(Image: PA)

His conclusion is clear: as long as Ashley remains, the same issues will remain. “The club will not be the club it could be while they’ve got the owner they’ve got. He’s not going to change,” Barton says, ruefully.

“It’s sad but that’s his way of doing things and I feel sorry for the supporters because they do deserve more. It’s a huge football club and it should be in the Premier League – it should never be out of it or even in a position where they’re thinking it might not be.

“It’s a sad predicament of mismanagement. They spent loads of money on players in the Championship and then get up to the Premier League and spend no money. I just don’t get it. I don’t get what he wants to do.

“Does he want to keep yo-yoing between the two divisions? Is that the plan? He owns the football club but it needs a change of regime.”

On Benitez, he shares the frustration of supporters that Ashley’s approach may alienate the Spaniard.

“They have a good manager there who, if you give him a bit of money, he tends to do well. He’s a wily character and he knows how to build successful football clubs. But he keeps getting the Ashley nonsense on transfers so the question has to be whether he will stay there or not,” Barton said.

“It’s a perfect club for someone like Rafa. It could grow to be something so much bigger than what it is now.”