Barton freed after 74 days in jail

Barton, 25, left Strangeways prison in Manchester after serving 74 days of a six-month sentence for beating up a teenager in Liverpool city centre last December.

The £40,000-a-week Newcastle United midfielder was released as Keegan revealed he would give Barton a "second chance" despite his jailing.

The player, signed for £5.8 million from Manchester City, was sent to prison on May 20 after pleading guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to assault and affray. After spending weeks behind bars alongside murderers, drug dealers and thieves he walked out of the prison gates at HMP Manchester at 11am on Monday.

Barton, wearing jeans and a jumper and carrying a holdall, shook hands with a friend waiting for him outside the prison gates. He made no comment to reporters before getting into a waiting silver Range Rover and being driven off.

His future at Newcastle had been in some doubt given his time in prison. Amid reported wrangling over a pay-cut, summer transfer rumours have suggested his club would try to off-load the former England international.

But despite his ill-discipline, both on and off the field, the tough-tackling midfielder is still a prized asset. And now Keegan has vowed to stick by the player when he returns to St James' Park.

"Joey will be back towards the end of the month," Keegan told Radio Five's Sportsweek programme, adding: "He's been punished for what he did wrong and the world is littered with people who have deserved a second chance, got it and taken it with both hands. There are lot of things he has to put right with people but I think he can do that. It's up to Joey now and he's got to win a lot of people over."

Capped once by England, the player, from Huyton, Merseyside, served 68 days of the six-month jail term plus six days on remand after his initial arrest. Under the Criminal Justice Act 1991 anyone given a jail sentence of less than 12 months is automatically released after serving half the sentence.

Although freed he is, however, currently serving a four-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, after a separate conviction for a "ferocious" training ground attack on former Manchester City colleague Ousmane Dabo, which left his victim unconscious and bleeding.