Joseph Anthony Barton or Joey Barton as he is commonly known, has been a player with a history of wrongdoings behind him. Barton, who spent his youth career in the academies of Everton, Liverpool and Manchester City has spent a considerable amount of time playing top flight football in England and also a bit in France and recently Scotland. Despite being a decent enough player who had the stamina of supporting both the attack and the defence from the midfield, Barton was always a liability on the field due to his behavior and attitude. This was the reason why he had never been able to add to his solitary cap for his country which comprised of a 12-minute substitute appearance against Spain in 2007.
The list of incidents which started from his early Manchester City days never stopped despite the player growing older and some of them were so inappropriate that it affected the whole football career of the player. Right from a horrendous training ground assault on Ousmane Dabo for which he was charged with assault to getting sent home from the team’s pre-season tour of Thailand for assaulting a 15-year-old Everton fan while he was at Manchester City to calling his own manager ‘sh*t’ and the assistant manager a pr**k and getting banned from the club indefinitely at Newcastle United, Joey has almost done it all from the other end of the moral spectrum.
After managing to get into trouble in his third club QPR also, even at Marseille where he went on loan from QPR, via the social media, almost everybody gave up hope that the player would ever change his general behavior or attitude. It was a gamble when Championship side Burnley offered him a one-year deal in 2015. It was perhaps the only time Barton played without any of his antics and subsequently was named in the Championship PFA Team of the Year of 2015/16.
Impressed with his performances, Rangers offered him a two-year contract in May of this year to which the player signed. But the old Joey Barton emerged again with the recent reports of him having a heated argument with teammate Andy Halliday in the training ground where he again said some inappropriate things. Following this incident, the club has suspended the English midfielder for three weeks.
Amidst the ban however, there’s even more trouble for Barton now as he is also under investigation for allegedly breaking the football betting rules. The SFA and the Gambling Commission are currently looking into claims that the 34-year old has bet on the rivals of Rangers, Celtic to suffer a heavy defeat against Barcelona in the Champions League game.
It looks like the time which he earned after his performances in 2015 in the Championship is going to end as the player is likely to get another punishment. The latest incident just confirms that the real Joey Barton has always been the same, rash, stupid and violent. He will never change…….
