The views of the following post do not represent those of Caught Offside as a whole, those in charge of Caught Offside, those that read Caught Offside, the concept of being Caught Offside, Carl Cort when he’s offside or any right thinking individual. Except the author, who shall remain nameless to annoy bloggers, but suffice to say he is not Carl Cort.
Joey Barton is awesome. He is almost always right in everything he says. Yes he has a bit of a temper, but he is trying his best to resolve it. All power to the boy who puts the interesting in “my that was an interesting post-match interview”. And is far more rock and roll than a night in Camden with my friend James who works in the music industry and likes drugs (NB Joey Barton doesn’t take drugs, being rock and roll is a mindset, not a powder).
So it is with joy in our hearts that report that Barton will not be charged for accidentally scraping his studs down Dickson Etuhu’s ‘Dickson Etuhu’.
Although the referee, Martin Atkinson, said he had not realised how high Barton’s boot was when it made contact he had, strictly speaking, seen the challenge. Under FA rules no retrospective action can be taken because the officials had decided not to punish the incident during the game. An FA spokesman said: “The Football Association can only take action in the case of incidents that are not seen by officials. While it is clear that the officials did not see the full extent of the incident, they did see players coming together and to take any further action would be tantamount to re-refereeing the game and this would be contrary to the laws of the game.”
Ah, red tape, always there when you need it. And anyway, they can’t punish him, he needs to get his fitness up if he is going to anchor that England midfield at Euro ’08.
We also quite like Stephen Ireland.