Rangers legend Ally McCoist confident that Joey Barton will not be intimidated by the crowd at Parkhead this weekend.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Rangers legend Ally McCoist has stated that midfielder Joey Barton will be able to cope with the pressure on his shoulders during the Old Firm derby on Saturday.
Celtic and Rangers will be contesting the Old Firm derby in the Scottish Premiership for the first time in more than four years at Parkhead this weekend and there has understandably been a lot of hype leading up to the encounter.
In particular, many people are keen on seeing what sort of reception Barton will receive during the encounter from the Celtic fans following his less than flattering comments about Scott Brown and Brendan Rodgers over the past few months.
It is very likely that Barton will be facing the wrath of the Celtic fans throughout the game and playing in such a hostile circumstance will most certainly not be easy to deal with.
Nonetheless, Rangers legend McCoist firmly believes that Barton will be able to cope with the pressure and has stated that he is looking forward to the midfield battle between the 34-year-old and Brown.
McCoist told the Daily Mail: “I think we all know what Joey Barton is like. A lot of his stuff is said tongue-in-cheek. Joey is news and he’s given people plenty to talk about and some headlines, which is what we expected. But the one thing Joey Barton is not is an idiot. Far from it.
“I think Brendan Rodgers handled it all famously. He shrugged it off and laughed it off. I certainly don’t think there’s any malice at all in anything Joey has said but now on Saturday he’s got a chance to do his talking on the park and I’m looking forward to it.
“I would hope Joey is the type to thrive on the pressure and I think he will. I’d expect he will not be very intimidated by the atmosphere at Celtic Park.
“Everybody’s talking about the personal battle between him and Scott Brown. I’ ve no doubt they’ll have a healthy respect for each other and I just hope they go about their business in the right manner.”
McCoist then went on to defend Barton’s controversial comments about Celtic since his arrival to Rangers this summer and credited the former Newcastle United man for raising the profile of the Scottish game.
He continued: “But we can’t have it both ways. We are all delighted he came up here and raised the profile of the game so I don’t think we can then destroy him for some of the copy he gives us.
“I’m delighted at getting a guy like Joey up here because it’s a sign Scottish football is heading back to better times. Celtic have made good signings, too, with Scott Sinclair and boys like that.
“We’re not quite at the Henrik Larsson and Brian Laudrup stage yet but I think we’re slowly heading in the right direction.”
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