Joey Barton article

[Escobar 13,676]

An argument over Warburton’s desire to sign Joleon Lescott, whom Barton believed had “grassed” him to the FA after his sending off for QPR against Manchester City four years earlier, had fractured an already shaky relationship with the Ibrox boss but after a 5-1 hammering by celtic at Parkhead a week later, it was over.

Barton said: “We’re playing celtic at celtic Park. I’ve said I’m going to be the best player in
 Scotland and all eyes are on me and Scott Brown.

“We did team shape on Thursday. Andy Halliday was having something to eat later that night and he says, ‘I’m not playing tomorrow’.

“He was in the team shape on the Thursday, so we’ve had all this preparation, so why is he changing the team on the Friday? We found out on the Saturday that Warbs was concerned the team had been leaked, so he decided to change it.

“But he didn’t tell Andy – he texted him, despite us all being in the hotel.

“Andy’s a mad Rangers man and a good lad. He was clearly upset. It was just amateur hour everywhere.

“We turn up at the stadium and run the gauntlet of the celtic fans. I know we’re going to lose the game because of the team selection. It’s me, Josh Windass and Niko Kranjcar in centre midfield against Scott Brown, Nir Bitton and Callum McGregor.

“Josh and Niko are good players but not ones you really want in the trenches with you at Parkhead. You want warhorses.

“I knew all the sh** I was going to get because we weren’t winning that game. Before the game Kenny Miller is having a go. Andy’s trying to galvanise the troops. I look to my right and there’s Warburton shaking.

“He was supposed to be the leader and he’s shaking like a dog having a sh**.

“I remember thinking, ‘Don’t get sent off’. My mindset was not about winning. It was not getting sent off.”

There was a sending-off. Philippe Senderos was red-carded on his
 debut at 3-1 and according to Barton, Warburton made a tactical switch that allowed celtic to go on and rout them.

He added: “Senderos got sent off and Warbs put me as the middle man of a back three with Lee Wallace and Tav on either side of me. Tav can’t defend for toffee, everybody knows that.

“Wallace ducked out of a header at Dundee and I dug him out for it, saying, ‘If you’re captain of Rangers you can’t do that. Don’t do that again’.

“Warbs didn’t like that but Lee, to be fair, accepted it. We got overrun and lost 5-1 to celtic. I thought we could use that as a reality check.

“On Sunday, Warbs phoned me
and asked me to have breakfast with him. I left that thinking he was in over his head.

“On Monday I went in thinking, ‘This is Ground Zero – day one when Rangers rebuild themselves.

“There was a real intense training session. Miller, Halliday, Wallace were hurt by the result and it was right on the edge of going over – but that’s how you should train at elite level.

“Me and Andy were on opposite teams. He was pissed off at being left out and I was pissed off with the result.

“We had a couple of ding-dongs and at one point lads got in between us but it was never going to be a dust-up. Instead of letting it go on, Warbs stopped the session and had a shooting session. I walked off, thinking, ‘This is a f***ing waste of my time’.

“Stuff was said that doesn’t cover me, Mark or Davie (Weir) in glory and should remain behind closed doors but we had a fundamental disagreement about where the team and club was going.

“I knew when things were being
 said that it was me or him who would be going. I was cool with that. It needed resolving.

“I should have left a week earlier but if I’d done that before the celtic game, people would have said I was a sh**bag.

“I was made the scapegoat but 
went back to Burnley where I was so de-conditioned by the standard of Rangers’ training that I had to train like crazy to get back up to Premier League standard.

“But I got back and showed I was a Premier League player.”

[pcbear 10,913]

Fanny, as was Warburton.

[left winger 14,096]

He’s a prick. Could be a lot of truth in what he says, but he’s still a prick.

[KingKirk 25,577]

Wank of a guy but I believe him.

Only a manager that's way out his depth comes away with what he did after the scum game.

Nobodies died I'll never forget that

[Born Sinner 298]

Both sides are embarrassing clowns.

Barton was cocky, lazy, unfit, and ineffective. He was also a disruption.

Warburton was a shitebag and a limited coach.

Miller, Wallace, Halliday are the only ones there I couldn’t really direct much blame to.

[TMB 14,167]

I believe every word of what Barton’s saying.  Warburton was in well over his head.  I think we were 30pts behind when Warburton finally got sacked.  

When we lost both our recognised CBs Warburton did put Barton at the back on his own.  Wallace and Tavernier were still trying to get up the pitch and we lost two late goals.

When we got fucked out the Scottish Cup 4-0 over a year later people said we needed someone in the dressing room who would get upset, angry, and have a go at people.  We had that in Barton and he was chased out the club having played about 5 league games for us.

[VERITAS VOS LIBREBETS 3,315]

I believe him too, yes he was a cocky cunt but appeared to have the attitude - fuck 'pitch geography' - hit him as if you were John Greig.

[LegendofCoop 17,227]

I believe every word. I dislike the guy, bu he's spot on.

Only thing is though.....he knew he was unfit and not getting trained properly. Considering the wedge he was getting....couldn't he have done extra training? Or is that too obvious??

[G.E.C. 18,702]

1 minute ago, LegendofCoop said:

I believe every word. I dislike the guy, bu he's spot on.

Only thing is though.....he knew he was unfit and not getting trained properly. Considering the wedge he was getting....couldn't he have done extra training? Or is that too obvious??

He spent the summer working for talksport as a pundit during Euro 2016.

[Escobar 13,676]

13 minutes ago, LegendofCoop said:

I believe every word. I dislike the guy, bu he's spot on.

Only thing is though.....he knew he was unfit and not getting trained properly. Considering the wedge he was getting....couldn't he have done extra training? Or is that too obvious??

Don’t be silly mate, absolutely none of this is Barton’s fault.

[Escobar 13,676]

Including being embarrassed at home to Hamilton and utter shite away to Killie.

[Tiger Shaw 30,342]

Beat before a ball is kicked fucking shocking attitude from Barton, wasn’t thinking about winning just not getting red carded ffs 

Warburton is a fanny anaw 

[SuperPapac05 3,383]

Aye nae bother, how does he explain Hamilton and Kilmarnock, two other games he was completely useless in? He still can't admit he couldn't back up all the shite he was spouting so has to blame others. The fact Scott Brown took the utter piss out of him in that game boils piss. He thought he'd stroll it up here and once he found out he couldn't he wanted to bail. Fuck him. 

[TMB 14,167]

17 minutes ago, LegendofCoop said:

I believe every word. I dislike the guy, bu he's spot on.

Only thing is though.....he knew he was unfit and not getting trained properly. Considering the wedge he was getting....couldn't he have done extra training? Or is that too obvious??

He was working as a pundit all summer and missed preseason.  We signed him knowing this.  He was slowly coming in to the side then he fell out with Warburton.  Barton went to Dubai and trained there off his own back but Warburton wanted him gone and so he was paid off.

[British_Empire 9,648]

Bitter-sweet reading that.

A lot of truth in it, but he doesn't exactly come out from it well, either.

Good to know that Miller, Wallace and Halliday had an idea and had the clubs back. 

Shocking to read that he and the manager both knew we were beat before going into the game. What chance did we have?

Agree with his summary that going into a game like that with Windass and Krancjer in midfield when we need to win a battle was a recipe for disaster.

I'm amazed anyone (not anyone on here, just in general) can keep on defending Tav. Barton is the latest in a line of players and managers who have said things to the same effect but in different ways - some of them admit they target our right hand side when attacking and others just say point-blank that he can't defend.

Tav wasn't even mentioned by Barton as one of the guys that seemed bothered or was hurting by the celtic defeat and that sums him up for me. 

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2 minutes ago, SuperPapac05 said:

Aye nae bother, how does he explain Hamilton and Kilmarnock, two other games he was completely useless in? He still can't admit he couldn't back up all the shite he was spouting so has to blame others. The fact Scott Brown took the utter piss out of him in that game boils piss. He thought he'd stroll it up here and once he found out he couldn't he wanted to bail. Fuck him. 

He wasn’t completely useless in those games.  I remember the Hamilton game.  Barton wins the ball back in midfield, starts a counter attack, and we score seconds later.  I remember the commentator saying something like “that’s kind of what he does”.

It was a shite system with many poor footballers.  You can’t point the finger at Barton and blame him for every bad result.  Barton barley kicked a ball for us.  Warburton was canned when we were left trailing celtic by 30pts so it’s clear the problem with that side ran deep.

[TMB 14,167]

4 minutes ago, British_Empire said:

I'm amazed anyone (not anyone on here, just in general) can keep on defending Tav. Barton is the latest in a line of players and managers who have said things to the same effect but in different ways - some of them admit they target our right hand side when attacking and others just say point-blank that he can't defend.

Tav wasn't even mentioned by Barton as one of the guys that seemed bothered or was hurting by the celtic defeat and that sums him up for me. 

We’ve had one of the strongest defences domestically for the last two seasons.  The stats support that.  We had the best defense in our Europa group this season.

When Warburton was manager most of the goals we conceded came from central areas, not Tavernier side of the pitch.

Tav can defend.  See the League Cup final (where the £16m winger from Southampton had to be subbed at halftime) or the victory a few weeks later at Parkhead as evidence of that.  celtic could get absolutely no change from Tavernier down that side.

[British_Empire 9,648]

3 minutes ago, TMB said:

We’ve had one of the strongest defences domestically for the last two seasons.  The stats support that.  We had the best defense in our Europa group this season.

When Warburton was manager most of the goals we conceded came from central areas, not Tavernier side of the pitch.

You can't have it all ways, you literally say above in regards to Barton that one man can't be blamed for all our failings, now you are implying that one man can take all the credit for a good defensive record? there's 3 other defenders there.

Nothing will change my mind that his (Tav's) concentration levels and defending is rank-rotten. It's not just me saying it, it's people in the game.

Stats can prove, disprove or fit any narrative (good or bad) that you want .... going on stats Candaies and Windass were better than McGregor, Forrest etc and we should have kept them at all costs.

[SuperPapac05 3,383]

1 minute ago, TMB said:

He wasn’t completely useless in those games.  I remember the Hamilton game.  Barton wins the ball back in midfield, starts a counter attack, and we score seconds later.  I remember the commentator saying something like “that’s kind of what he does”.

It was a shite system with many poor footballers.  You can’t point the finger at Barton and blame him for every bad result.  Barton barley kicked a ball for us.  Warburton was canned when we were left trailing celtic by 30pts so it’s clear the problem with that side ran deep.

I'm not purely blaming Barton. So many people had a lot to answer for when we came up. To many signings were made that disrupted the flow of the year before. We should have put all the money into two impactful players that summer and not the nine (I think) we spunked on. That summer transfer window was a shambles. 

My frustration about Barton was he wouldn't shut up about how he was too good for Scottish Football, how he's going to teach Scott Brown a thing or two, how basically he is going to stroll it when he plays there and he never backed a single thing up with performances. 

If he came up, kept his mouth shut (said how happy he was to come and play for a big club and couldn't wait to get started) and just focused on getting up to speed with our game then it may have been different. But no he just kept working out his mouth rather than his body. 

Gerrard was most likely signed up as a pundit for WC 2018 but obviously he binned that to start work at Rangers. Barton saw Talksport was more important than training with us, wich summed up his own attitude. 

[Tiger Shaw 30,342]

Best thing about Joey Barton was his chant.

 

[British_Empire 9,648]

4 minutes ago, SuperPapac05 said:

I'm not purely blaming Barton. So many people had a lot to answer for when we came up. To many signings were made that disrupted the flow of the year before. We should have put all the money into two impactful players that summer and not the nine (I think) we spunked on. That summer transfer window was a shambles. 

My frustration about Barton was he wouldn't shut up about how he was too good for Scottish Football, how he's going to teach Scott Brown a thing or two, how basically he is going to stroll it when he plays there and he never backed a single thing up with performances. 

If he came up, kept his mouth shut (said how happy he was to come and play for a big club and couldn't wait to get started) and just focused on getting up to speed with our game then it may have been different. But no he just kept working out his mouth rather than his body. 

Gerrard was most likely signed up as a pundit for WC 2018 but obviously he binned that to start work at Rangers. Barton saw Talksport was more important than training with us, wich summed up his own attitude. 

That's been my gripe for years and still is to this day (with a couple of exceptions like Kent etc)

Wasting money on 4/5/6 players like O'Halloran, Rossiter, Docherty, Garner etc instead of maybe 2 right top talents that will enhance the XI outright

Buy cheap, buy twice - it costs us more money in the long run.

[McEwan's Lager 30,459]

I think this is true but he is a total dickhead who we should never have signed.

lol at Lescott supposedly grassing him. He fucking booted a player off the ball on live tv after he had already been sent off.

[MARK92GERS 804]

Podcast on his time at Rangers is up on Spotify really good listen to be honest spoke really well and probably gives you a good insight into why Warburton failed up here 

[Tero Penttila 425]

Warburton was out of his depth from the minute we got promoted. 

He’s a lower league manager. 

Barton probably had the mentality to play for us, but he couldn’t have arrived at a worse time. 

[TMB 14,167]

6 minutes ago, SuperPapac05 said:

My frustration about Barton was he wouldn't shut up about how he was too good for Scottish Football, how he's going to teach Scott Brown a thing or two, how basically he is going to stroll it when he plays there and he never backed a single thing up with performances. 

If he came up, kept his mouth shut (said how happy he was to come and play for a big club and couldn't wait to get started) and just focused on getting up to speed with our game then it may have been different. But no he just kept working out his mouth rather than his body. 

Gerrard was most likely signed up as a pundit for WC 2018 but obviously he binned that to start work at Rangers. Barton saw Talksport was more important than training with us, wich summed up his own attitude. 

Barton said he wanted to win things with Rangers.  I’ll never hold that type of talk against any player or manager.  A bit more self belief is what our players have needed over the years.

Barton was contractually obligated to fulfill his punditry work I remember him and Warburton saying that at the time.  It had been arranged months prior to us even approaching him.  Warburton didn’t view it as an issue because he signed him anyway.