Coming as a surprise to absolutely nobody, Burnley have passed on the option to renew Joey Barton’s contract.
As you may recall, Barton is currently just a few weeks into an 18-month suspension from all footballing activity after being found guilty by the FA of over 1,000 betting breaches in April.
With four players currently out of contract, the Clarets released a brief statement to confirm that they are still in talks with two parties over new deals – 34-year-old Barton not being one of them.
Midfielder [George] Boyd and goalkeeper [Paul] Robinson are two of only four senior players out of contract at Turf Moor this summer.
The others – Michael Kightly and Joey Barton – are both been being released.
For the record, Kightly spent the latter half of last season on loan at Burton Albion having played just 8 minutes of Premier League football for Burnley since last October.
As for Barton, surely retirement (and an almost inevitable move into media) is now imminent?