Joey Barton has been released from jail after serving 74 days of a six-month sentence. The Newcastle midfielder had been jailed for assault in May after he attacked two people in Liverpool last December and had an appeal for early release turned down this month.

But today the midfielder enjoyed his first taste of freedom after weeks in the cells. 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 Land Rover and being driven off.

Barton also has a four-month suspended sentence hanging over him after being convicted of an assault on his former Manchester City team-mate Ousmane Dabo, but the Professional Footballers' Association are hoping Barton is able to focus on his career and put off-field problems behind him.

The PFA chief executive, Gordon Taylor, believes that the Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan could be the ideal character for Barton to be working with.

"Hopefully Kevin thinks he can work his oracle with Joey and get his life back on track, both as a human being and as a footballer," Taylor told BBC Five Live. "Kevin is very much a people person. He has shown his emotions quite clearly in public. We're all human beings and we all have our failings.

"At the same time you've got to be responsible for your own actions. We've tried to help Joey with the Sporting Chance clinic and to be there to help him when he's needed it. But you need to see something in return."