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This time, COS reader Ankur reckons Joey Barton has a lot to prove before running his mouth.
So Manchester City midfielder Joey Barton thinks he has the right to start lambasting the team for its poor performances and the manager for making poor signings.
Yet this is the man who has committed so many past transgressions that his list of previous offences is almost as long as the rap sheet of an LA drugs dealer. Let’s consider some of his finest moments. At the club’s Christmas party in 2004 he poked a lit cigar in youth player Jamie Tandy’s eye. For that incident he was fined six weeks wages, two of which were suspended. After that incident Barton said, “I feel embarrassed about what I did and deeply regret it.†In July 2005 he was sent home from a pre-season tour of Thailand after being involved in a fight with a young Everton fan in Bangkok. He was also involved in an altercation with Richard Dunne after Dunne had tried to step in as a peacemaker. Having struck the fan, Barton resorted to his thuggish instincts by biting Dunne in the hand. Dunne was so annoyed that he kicked a door off its hinges causing him to miss the start of the season. For his latest escapade Barton was fined another eight weeks wages, which included the two weeks wages carried over from the suspended fine after the cigar incident only seven months previously. In less than one year Barton had managed to rack up 12 weeks worth of fines, costing himself over £180,000. After the hotel incident he once again apologised saying, “I understand the distress I have caused to everybody concerned and want to apologise for my actions.â€
Even after this incident City decided to stick by their man, probably because they couldn’t afford to let him leave on a free. You would have thought that Barton would do everything possible to endear himself to the club and the fans and repay them for the faith they had shown him. No, not Barton!
Last January Barton decided to submit a transfer request after he rejected a new contract worth double his current deal. Only in the crazy world of football would an employee who in the past 18 months had committed two sackable offences be offered a new contract which doubled the salary he was currently on. However, we should expect no more of an individual with the intelligence of Barton. Had he not been a footballer, he would more than likely ended up as a shelf stacker in Kwik Save or in some other dead-end job, maybe with a couple of ASBO’s to his name. Mancester City rejected his transfer request and Barton performed a complete u-turn in July 2006 by signing a new four year contract. Would he finally learn the lessons of his past mistakes – don’t kid yourself!
Who can forget the painful sight Everton fans had to suffer in September 2006 when Joey Barton decided to bare his spotty arse at them after the final whistle. The truth is he is a cause of the problem, not the solution. Ill-discipline has dogged his career and talented though he may be, he has achieved nothing in his career. So far all he has to show for his endeavours is large wad of cash, a 12 minute friendly run out against Spain and nothing else! He can criticise people all he wants, that’s all he seems good at – sometimes I wonder if his oxygen is supplied by media outlets. His infamous quote ‘I played sh*t. Here’s my book’ referring to the autobiographies of England players coming out after the World Cup debacle sums him up perfectly. Whilst he has a point, he has no right to criticise others who have achieved far more than he ever will.
Until he achieves something, he should shut his mouth and let his football doing the talking – but we all know that won’t happen.
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