His slate will take some cleaning and he makes Kieron Dyer and Titus Bramble look like naughty schoolboys.
But Joey Barton's emergence as Sam Allardyce's top summer transfer target could see the manager with a tough task of taming ahead, if he is to get the best out of the England midfielder.
Barton has already rubbed up the backs of England senior players up by slagging them off for making books after the World Cup.
And other troublesome moments include the night when Stuart Pearce actually requested that the Thai police lock him up for a scuffle with a junior Everton fan and the final straw coming after he assaulted his team mate Ousmane Dabo.
Apart from all of that lot - he's one helluva player!
And at £5.5million the Huyton-born schemer could be ours!
But haven't we been down this potentially unpleasant road before?
Dyer, Bowyer, Bellamy, Robert, Jenas, Bramble....between them you've got goldfish bowls, punch-ups, insults to fans, police cautions, attacking journalists and not least some shocking excuses for performances down the years.
The argument is that Big Sam will take no grief from Barton and will make sure he channels his aggression where it counts on the field of play.
Joey, like El Hadji Diouf and Nik Anelka at Bolton, can benefit from Big Sam's guidance and become the star he can be in a black and white shirt.
Let's face it, Newastle is a bigger stage than Manchester City to do it on, despite the trophy-less nature of both clubs.
And with Scott Parker ready to sit down for a fry up on Green Street to celebrate his switch to claret and blue land, Barton is about to give Newcastle the bite the midfield has been lacking for quite some time.
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