Players' union chief Gordon Taylor offered no defence of Joey Barton on Thursday in the wake of the QPR midfielder being handed a 12-match ban.
Barton: Conduct was 'depressing' said Taylor
The 29-year-old was handed the suspension following his red card and subsequent violent reaction in the club's 3-2 defeat to Manchester City on the final day of the Premier League season.
He elbowed Carlos Tevez and kicked Sergio Aguero before attempting to headbutt Vincent Kompany. The Football Association announced his punishment on Wednesday night.
Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, said Barton's conduct was "depressing" and had undone the player's attempt to improve his standing in the game, after a series of misdemeanours on and off the pitch.
Taylor has offered support to Barton but admitted he is worried about the former Newcastle and Manchester City man.
"You can't defend those actions, this was a game going out all over the world," Taylor told Sky Sports News.
"The game is bigger than all of us and can't revolve around a single person and I am not surprised at the sanction.
"He is one of our members and he chooses what advice to take but it is a worry."
Barton took to Twitter in the aftermath of the match and claimed he was attempting to rile some of City's players in the hope of getting one or more of them dismissed, and Taylor was unhappy to read the comments.
"He did himself no favours talking about taking one or two Manchester City players off with him. It was quite depressing really," he said.
"He is at a stage in life where I felt things were going better albeit there were controversies with his social media.
"He has spoken at conferences about that (the social media) and when he is on track he is sound, articulate and good-humoured but there is a red mist what comes down and it knocks you back to square one."
Former QPR defender Alan McDonald told talkSPORT he believes Barton would have faced more of a backlash had his side not survived on the final day of the season.
"Its probably an extremely good thing that QPR stayed in the Premier League because if they had gone down I think Joey Barton's future at the club in regards to the fans would have been very, very unstable," McDonald said.
Former Northern Ireland international McDonald played over 400 games for QPR and suspects Tony Fernandes, the club's owner, and manager Mark Hughes will be counting the loss of Barton - both on and off the pitch.
He said: "There is a decision that is going to need to be made - he is going to be missing a third of the season and as a coach and a manager that is a big thing to take.
"Certainly the chairman will be saying to the manager, 'We are paying this man x-amount of pounds and we are going to get no reward for a third of the season', and that is going to be the big issue.
"Unfortunately he has got himself in trouble again and people are going to say, 'Would I take a chance on bringing him to our football club if QPR do release him?'."
Despite the celebrations following a dramatic survival campaign, McDonald feels Barton's actions have diminished the achievement.
"He has got himself in a very messy situation and from QPR's point of view it was a fabulous achievement for them to stay up this season...and all of a sudden there is a black cloud hanging over not only Joey but the club itself," he said.
Barton's fellow QPR midfielder Alejandro Faurlin has revealed he is on track to be fit in time for the new season after his serious knee injury and will start running next week, while teenage defender Michael Harriman has signed a new two-year contact with the club.
Source : http://soccer365.com//news/european_news/general/17084/taylor__not_surprised__by_jb_ban
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