It may not be the stupidest thing Joey Barton’s done, but his suspension has gone down well on the green half of Glasgow.
To think, Joey Barton to Rangers seemed like something of a masterstroke not so long ago.
A classy, combative midfielder, picked in the Championship team of the season after guiding Burnley to promotion, his arrival at Ibrox this summer was billed as a remarkable coup, both for Rangers and the Scottish game itself.
Yes, this was a new Joey Barton. A reformed character. Or so it seemed.
A matter of weeks later, however, the once-capped England international has been suspended by the club for three weeks.
Barton’s pre-bout trash talk, from public spats with Scott Brown to bizarre comments about the dazzling whiteness of Brendan Rodgers’ teeth (below), was always likely to come back and bite him after his dismal performance in Rangers’ 5-1 hammering at Celtic Park. The days that followed, however, have sent player and club spinning into an all-too avoidable saga.
The 34-year-old remains adamant that it was the tone, rather than the content, of his comments in the much-publicised training ground bust-up with team-mate Andy Halliday that caused so much consternation. Then again, Joey Barton is not a man to admit when he’s in the wrong.
“Apologising doesn’t always mean that you’re wrong and the other person is right. It means you value your relationship more than your ego,” the man himself tweeted earlier this week, according to the Daily Mirror. Like the above post, Barton’s Rangers career could be deleted from memory very shortly.
It’s fair to say rival fans are rather enjoying this ever-thickening plot. And, after all his bravado, Barton could probably have seen this coming.
By popular demand the Rangers/Joey Barton circus has decided to stay in town for an additional 3 weeks. Roll up, roll up!
— Ronnie (@RJMcL) September 19, 2016
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