Newcastle United’s difficult season took another demoralising turn yesterday when Joey Barton, their England midfield player, was charged in connection with an alleged assault in Liverpool. With Sam Allardyce struggling to persuade supporters that he can revitalise a misfiring team, it was the last thing the manager needed.

Barton, 25, was arrested by Merseyside Police along with another man and a woman in the early hours of yesterday after two men were attacked in Church Street, a busy retail area in Liverpool city centre just after 5.30am. The previous afternoon, nursing a slight ankle injury, Barton, the England international, had watched from the stands as Newcastle suffered a dismal 1-0 defeat at Wigan Athletic.

Early today Barton was charged with common assault and affray and held in custody to appear this morning at Liverpool Magistrate’s court along with Andrew Barton, 19, who was charged with actual bodily harm and and Nadine Wilson, 27, who was also charged with common assault and affray.

The victims of the alleged assault were not said to be seriously hurt and did not require hospital treatment.

Barton has a history of disciplinary problems, but has worked with the Sporting Chance Clinic, the charity established by Tony Adams, the former England captain, to deal with those issues and now claims to be a more spiritual character.

But his latest dalliance with adverse publicity is likely to be an embarrassment for a club attempting to reinvent itself and could be interpreted as another dent to Allardyce’s authority.

On the completion of Barton’s transfer, Allardyce conceded that he had been required to persuade his directors that bringing another troubled character to St James’ Park was a wise course of action. Too often in the past decade, Newcastle have found themselves attracting front-page headlines for the exploits of their more impressionable players, a scenario their new owners are eager to change.

“That side of it had to be a consideration, of course,” Allardyce said at the time. “I had to convince the board that myself and Joey would be able to deal with that side and not let that side of it come out yet again. Me, this football club and Joey cannot run into that sort of off the field trouble again.”

Spculation about Allardyce’s future increased after a sequence of dismal performances, which culminated in Newcastle’s failure to beat Derby Country, the bottom team in the Barclays Premier League, at home on December 23 and the loss at Wigan on Boxing Day. At the JJB Stadium, their fans chanted “we’re s*** and we’re sick of it”. With Mike Ashley, the club’s billionaire owner, sitting amongst supporters, there were also calls for Alan Shearer, Newcastle’s record goalscorer and former captain, to be installed as Allardyce’s replacement.

While Chris Mort, the chairman, has not commented publicly on his manager’s position, senior sources have let it be known that Allardyce is not under imminent threat of dismissal. Yet Allardyce may have given himself little scope for manoeuvre. While the club are desperate to install solid foundations, there has been a degree of unease in the Newcastle dressing-room about his scientific methods and after Wigan debacle, Allardyce shifted the blame to his players.