From stubbing a cigar out in a teammate’s eye to attacking
Sergio Aguero in a moment of indiscipline that could have cost QPR their
premier league status Joey Barton has made his fair share of mistakes in his
life. Why therefore, do I still think he’s an asset on the pitch?
It’s because when he is at his best he is a very talented
midfielder who is both creative and tenacious. Barton is the complete midfield
player and when playing for a manager he respects, he performs with quality. If
Barton the person was less controversial he would have won 40 England caps and
be a regular in the England squad, that’s how highly I rate him. Under Chris
Hughton at Newcastle, Barton performed arguably at the best he has in his
career. As a Newcastle fan, Joey Barton was the best player at the club in the
team that finished comfortably in midtable upon return from the championship. You
can talk about Coloccini, Enrique, Carroll, Nolan, Tiote and Gutierrez who all
played very important roles in the side surviving comfortably but Barton was
the driving force. Without Joey Barton’s influence on the pitch, Newcastle
would not have got £35 million for Andy Carroll, he set up more than half of
the Geordie striker’s premier league goals in 2010. A Morten Gamst Pedersen
incident aside, Barton was controversy free for the two years between Newcastle
getting relegated in May 2009 and May 2011. This was because he respected manager
Chris Hughton. He only left because of his belief that he was mistreated by
Derek Llambias and Mike Ashley by not being offered a long- term contract, this
was not unfair to suggest as Kevin Nolan left the club for a very similar
reason. Whilst he went about criticising them in the wrong way, he was not the
only player to do so as Jose Enrique did through twitter. The difference was,
Barton is Barton and gets criticised for every wrong move. Whilst this is to be
expected following his past, he is a player who if he respects the manager,
will perform for the team. Alan Pardew said about Barton “If he thinks he’s got
justice then he’ll give you justice, though he has a warped sense of justice
sometimes”[1].
This for me hits the nail on the head, Barton for sure needs a manager who
understands him.
Last season at Marseilles I didn’t see much of French
football. However, the reports I have seen suggested Barton played well and crucially
I didn’t see any negative feedback from happenings on the pitch, showing again
that with the right manager Barton can prosper. If Harry Redknapp can gain
Barton’s respect, he will have a player capable of leading QPR to the
championship title as Tony Fernandes said at the end of last season “[2]We missed Joey.
We needed a workhorse midfielder and we tried to get Scott Parker. We missed a
real leader”. If
Barton is made available, many premier league teams should be interested.
Norwich under Chris Hughton may not have the financial resources to attract
Barton, but Barton could consider taking a wage cut to work under Hughton, his
admiration for Hughton was shown after he dedicated the win the game after
Hughton’s sacking at Newcastle to the former manager. With many players, this
could be seen as an empty gesture but what we know from Barton is that if he
hadn’t respected Hughton we would have heard just that. Sam Allardyce knows
Barton well from his time at Newcastle and could also try to sign the once
capped England international. How Newcastle United could do with the passion,
leadership and creativity of Joey Barton, for me a central midfield partnership
of Barton and Yohan Cabaye would be top class, controversially I’d say Barton
was nearer Cabaye’s quality than many think. Newcastle United could certainly
do with a character having lost Nolan, Harper, Carroll, Smith and Butt in
recent years leaving only Fabriccio Coloccini in the current squad as a leader
on the pitch.
Whilst Barton is still prone to misdemeanours off the pitch,
they are much less serious these days. His days of violent assaults off the pitch
which would make the midfielder unemployable seemed to have gone. Whilst Barton
is prone to a twitter outburst or a stupid tackle every now and again these are
more conventional football issues, these
are manageable. 6 yellows and 1
red in 33 games last season is certainly
not a disgraceful disciplinary record, particularly in the role Barton
plays where he likes to get stuck into challenges. For me Barton could be
signed by teams he is too good to play for, just because his controversy means
that the top teams won’t want him, I think he could do a job for a number of
premier league teams next season.
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