So it looks like another in a long list of sideshows at the Govan theatre is coming to end.
Indeed if some sources are to be believed it already has.
Yes the Joey Barton saga appears to be at its conclusion.
Barton swept into what was once Murray Park, since simply christened Auchenhowie by the latest landlord Dave King, last May.
It was to be Sevco’s Hollywood signing and an apparent sign of intent from the board that would signal both the depth of their pockets and the extent of their ambition.
When you are encouraging season ticket holders to renew under the guise of ‘#GoingFor55′ the pre-contract additions of Matt Crooks and the fruit of Dean Windass’s loins just don’t quite grab the imagination.
That plus the fact an effective smokescreen had to be created to deflect from the football related ramifications of both unexpectedly losing the Scottish Cup Final to a history making Hibernian side and the even more unexpected appointment over at Parkhead of a manager who had come within a whisker of winning the English Premier League two years previously.
The signing did seem to rather come out of left field.
For a start the midfield didn’t seem to be an area of immediate concern for the light blues. Indeed a shortfall of quality striking options up front and the regular inclusion of Rob Kiernan in their central defence would have been of far more cause for concern for those overseeing the football department.
Or so you would think.
Also Barton had just finished an apparently stellar season leading an unfancied Burnley side to the English Championship title and promotion back to the EPL and had a contract renewal offer on the table. The reason certainly couldn’t have been financial. Whatever Sevco were offering, Burnley could at least match if indeed not double his earnings. From a football perspective there was no European campaign on offer and outside of playing Celtic nothing in the way of glamour ties appearing on the calender.
Perhaps the lure of the so-called “Old Firm” games were enough.
Who knows maybe even Joey really did believe or rather was led to believe that a trophy laden season of glory and the greatest comeback since Bobby Ewing appeared in the shower really did lie ahead in the coming 12 months. I guess ultimately only Monsieur Barton could tell you.
What has come to pass though has been an unmitigated disaster for all parties concerned.
On reflection it was always going to be this way.
For a start the notion that grizzled, once outstanding talents who have plied their trade in England’s top flight can come up over the border for a retirement parade has been proven to be wishful thinking on just about every previous occasion. Rangers themselves tried it before with the likes of Trevor Francis back in 87-88’.
A veritable goal machine in his previous incarnation down south he literally couldn’t hit the proverbial barn door up here.
The ‘striker’ departed Ibrox having scored no goals in 18 league appearances.
Interestingly he was 33 when he signed on over in Govan. Just like Joey.
For our own part there have been too many examples for my liking of other ‘big names’ with their best days behind them who pitched up in Glasgow, collected sizable pay cheques and delivered very little.
Exhibit ‘A’ would be Ian Wright but you could also add Freddie Ljunberg, Roy Keane and only just last season Carlton Cole to the list.
Okay Roy produced a composed and exemplary 90 mins at Ibrox but that was about the extent of it.
There’s also this false narrative that the English Championship is a level above the SPFL top flight. But as we’ve seen recently when our own players such as Brown, Tierney, Forrest and Griffith run out on Scotland international duty surrounded by the Championship’s finest do they really look inferior? Do they hell.
Indeed quite the opposite.
Let’s not forget that several of our own transfer window cast-offs have easily found employment down there in that very league this summer.
Oh and I’ll add an exclamation mark to prove my point about the alleged quality of the Championship.
Two words……..Grant Hanley!
Barton himself seemed to be in no doubt he was coming up to dominate and run the show as heard on various 5 Live and Talk Sport interviews in the close season.
He seemed particularly at pains to point out a seemingly inevitable rivalry between himself and Celtic captain Scott Brown was only going to end up with one winner. According to Joey when addressing Talk Sport’s Alan Brazil back in June: “He ain’t in my league. He’s nowhere near the level I am as a player.”
On this one Joey was on the money.
When the two did meet in September’s clash at Celtic Park, Brown certainly did look to be a player operating in a different league and at a much higher level than his midfield opponent. The 5-1 full time result underlined that. Celtic put down both a marker that day and put Sevco firmly in their place.
No one seemed more acutely aware of that than a beleaguered looking Mark Warburton on the sidelines.
For Barton the penny dropped and by all accounts he let both the Magic Hat and several of his team mates aware of his realisation as to just how far off their Glasgow rivals he believed they were at the following days training session / postmortem.
Apparently Andy Halliday in particular took umbrage at that and preferred to point out that pre-Joey everything had been going great guns. He was rather dismissive of Barton’s retort which pointed out that Andy’s golden season had mostly taken place in a lower league, against inferior players and on one occasion against a different Celtic team, with a struggling manager and even then only via penalties.
From that moment on Joey Barton’s goose was cooked.
He was sent home, suspended from training, then suspended from training again before being suspended from training once more … all of this finally culminating in him being frog marched by security to his locker at Murray Park, sorry Auchenhowie, to grab his portable coffee machine and ultimately being signed off with stress.
Meanwhile a dazed and confused Mark Warburton took stage instructions from the bulging PR machine that is Jim Traynor at press conferences when anything relating to Joeygate came up. Poor Warbs. One couldn’t help but be reminded of the ‘Gotcha’ segment of ‘Noel Edmond’s House Party’ from back in the day as Traynor stop-startedly directed him to get up, leave and then sit back down again as he attempted to address the hacks.
You could just imagine Joey entering stage right with Noel and sniggering along with Jim before presenting a bemused Warburton with his trophy, pointing at him in unison and announcing ‘Gotcha!’.
In the coming days we should get an official announcement from the Blue Room.
Dave King will tell us another favourable settlement has been reached.
Due to likely confidentiality clauses being present as part of his severence agreement Barton will presumably stay silent for the time being at least, save cryptic messages on his twitter account that only readers of John Paul Sartre and other very intelligent people will get.
The press say he will pocket a 250K settlement which isn’t bad when you consider he’s been collecting 18K a week since July 1st.
I make that out to be 538K before tax and national insurance.
Not bad for doing sod all outside of ‘running the show’ against Annan, Stranraer and Peterhead … and all that assuming the media isn’t being misled by the PR team.
Like his employer he was the gift that just kept on giving.
Farewell Joey.
I for one will miss you this Christmas.
But as with my last girlfriend. I’ll get over it.
Paul Cassidy is a writer and blogger, who’s work has appeared on various Celtic sites.