Soccer:Newcastle midfielder Joey Barton has warned of an exodus from St James' Park after it was confirmed that skipper Kevin Nolan was undergoing a medical at West Ham.
The 28-year-old was swift to respond to the news, predicting that he, Spanish full-back Jose Enrique and Argentinian winger Jonas Gutierrez could follow Nolan out of the door.
Barton, who said last season he would sign a new deal on Tyneside if his captain did, used his Twitter account to make his feelings on the matter known.
He tweeted: "Just on my way to Ascot, feel sick", before adding: "Great player, leader, captain, person, trainer and mostly a friend for life. Devastated to see him SOLD", adding the hashtag "mejoseandjonasnext".
He did, though, later insist he has no intention of following Nolan out of the club.
"I love the football club, without a shadow of a doubt, and I think everyone knows that," he told Sky Sports News. "I have a great working relationship with the manager and a lot of the other players, obviously the other senior players who have been through the ups and downs - the likes of myself, Kevin Nolan, Stevie Harper, Smudger (Alan Smith).
"It's a difficult situation and I totally understand the club's point of view, but on the flip side it's hard for me to get drawn into it. I am an employee of the football club and I have to go back and do a job in the summer. As far as I know I will go back to Newcastle United and play until my contract runs out and they tell me I am no longer needed.
"I have got no ambitions to leave the football club, I don't want to leave the football club, and I would love nothing more than to win a trophy at Newcastle. Whether I get the opportunity to do that is out of my hands. I am an employee of the football club and if they choose to do something, I would be foolish not to listen to it. If I'm not wanted then I believe greatly in my ability and I would have to re-evaluate my options.
"That's the situation we are at at the minute. If that's the situation in a month's time then I will report back for pre-season training, if it's not then it's not. It's all hypothetical at the minute and I'm just trying to keep myself in shape and get myself ready for a league campaign with Newcastle United next season."
Nolan's seemingly imminent departure has come after talks over a new contract broke down over the length of the deal on offer. The 28-year-old former Bolton midfielder, who arrived at St James' Park in a €4.5 million switch from the Reebok Stadium in January 2009, is understood to have been prepared to negotiate down from his stance.
However, with owner Mike Ashley and managing director Derek Llambias determined to run the club their way and to focus on young, hungry players with a sell-on value, they appear to have decided to cash in on last season's leading scorer, who has two years of his existing deal still to run.
Just a few weeks ago, Nolan spoke of his hopes of extending his stay.
He said: "My wife has been here for 18 months now and my kids - my little boy is a Geordie, he was born up here, so we have settled into live up here really well and hopefully I have a good few more years left here. I have been able to get where I want just through hard work and dedication, and hopefully in the next couple of years, you are going to see the best of me again, and more of it."
Today's news was greeted with dismay by fans who had earlier been stunned to see Barton told he would not be made an offer, but perhaps not surprised at Enrique's refusal to date to respond to his in the wake of concerted speculation over his future.
Their concerns are understandable with feelings still running high over Andy Carroll's €41 million sale to Liverpool in January.
Manager Alan Pardew, of course, had made the retention of Nolan, Barton and Enrique his priority for the summer, and the latest development will do little to persuade his detractors that he can argue his case in front of Ashley following his repeated insistence that Carroll was going nowhere.
He has already added France midfielder Yohan Cabaye to the squad and will, he hopes, have both Hatem Ben Arfa and Dan Gosling back from injury for the new campaign. But he now he seems likely to have to find a replacement for Nolan - a man who has been as influential off the pitch as on it, where he has scored 30 goals in the last two seasons.
He was one of the gang of four senior players, along with Steve Harper, Nicky Butt and Alan Smith, who helped draw together a dressing room torn apart by the fire-sale which followed the club's relegation from the Barclays Premier League at the end of the 2008-09 campaign.
His 18 goals helped the Magpies clinch an instant return from the Championship, and 12 more last season - four of them, including a famous hat-trick, against derby rivals Sunderland - saw him reach double figures in the Premier League for the first time in his career.
It was Nolan who took Carroll under his wing as the striker's off-field problems threatened to derail his career in its infancy, and Pardew's fear will be that the spirit fostered during the club's top-flight exile and strengthened during the last campaign will dissipate in his absence.
The Hammers' initial offer - understood to amount to just £1.5million - was dismissed as "derisory", but the Magpies have now decided to do business for an undisclosed fee.
Ashley, Llambias and Pardew can all expect another backlash from their critics, who will take some persuading that their ambitions for the club are lofty enough.
But as Barton remarked in a later tweet, accompanied by a photograph of himself and Nolan, life at St James', as chaotic as it may be, will go on.
Barton said: "The king is dead, long live the king! Sure I've said that once or twice before."
