The comment will probably shock St James’ Park faithful, as Barton spent some of the summer in prison and still has two games left of his six-match ban for his assault on former Manchester City ace Ousmane Dabo in May.
Kinnear told the Sun: “We need somebody to be ranting and screaming information out on the pitch.
“We don’t have that at the moment. I imagine when Joey comes back that might change — he’s a chirpy lad with things to say.
“We certainly need people who are going to express themselves to sort things out because you can’t always do it from the touchline.
“Yes I have spoken to Joey. He’s OK but I’m not going to repeat conversations in private. To be fair, all the players have been responsible — I’ve got the highest respect for them.
“But the communication hasn’t been good. That’s the key area where we’ve got to improve. We’ve had two solid days on that.”
