Joey Barton: Pissing on Newcastle’s tent
The day before the ‘shock’ announcement that Joey Barton could leave Newcastle for free, he had a Twitter exchange with a Newcastle fan (who shall remain nameless as they are currently under twitness protection (God, that really is awful. I can’t believe SF let that stay in)) who suggested that certain things should remain in-house and the midfield gobshite should give it a rest.
Our Hero was indignant. Surely not every member of the Toon Army felt this way? #doievenneedtoask
But the fan was right – footballers are paid enough not to air dirty linen in public. It wasn’t unreasonable of the Newcastle board, no matter how many failings they have, to expect Barton to keep schtum.
Newcastle’s problems began when they decided Barton wasn’t worthy of a new contract. That firmly placed him on the outside of the tent, and ever since then he’s been pissing on it. And in the ears of anyone happening to pass by. He couldn’t believe Nolan was sold. He understood where Enrique was coming from. ‘One day the fans will know everything that’s gone on’. Barton certainly likes the sound of his own tweets.
Yes, the ‘fans’ (I really don’t know what to call people who like Joey Barton. Idiots?) will learn all about it when they purchase his eventual autobiography. Barton can make another fortune as people flock to hear his take on the time when a cigar was stubbed out in Man City youth player James Tandy’s eye. Or how did Ousmane Dabo get those facial bruises? And so on.
The problem with professional footballers on Twitter, is that due to their very presence all reasonable discussion goes out the window, and opinions become polarized. Some people turn into a fawning sycophant – a perfect example is the guy who said Barton should now get a job with Robbie Savage on 5 Live. Who in their right mind would want that to happen? I wouldn’t want to listen to it with your ears.
The other crowd (I really don’t know who’s worse) are your typical swamp-dwelling keyboard warrior, hiding behind an online persona with an agenda only to criticize and provoke a reaction. Darron Gibson’s spell on Twitter lasted just over an hour because of cretins like these. The brats like to think they know what they’re talking about, and everyone has to suffer them – players, journalists (for more on this read Nick Miller’s piece in WSC) and even other fans.
There are a few brave souls who try to burst the vacuum inbetween with a decent comment, but they are invariably squeezed out by the footballer’s ego. #helmets When you think as highly of yourself as Joey Barton, you believe you have a mandate to say whatever you want. You don’t though. It’s tedious. Really really really really tedious.
I might’ve been interested when Barton was a brilliant prospect breaking into Man City’s first team, but a lot has happened since then. Now, I really couldn’t care less. I’ll wait until some sap reads the autobiography and decides to tell me about it on a train sometime.
Matthew Stanger (sometimes I wish I had a cool pen name like that guy, Gay Girl in Damascus. Right, that’s me done).
