A funny moment last night; the Daily Record’s resident Sevco blogger (I know, that could apply to just about anyone in their newsroom, but you know who I mean) penned a quite ludicrous piece on the Barton saga. It dripped with invective. In it he accuses many of us of being motivated by “poisonous hatred”, suggesting that this is the reason we don’t accept the shaky narrative we’re being fed by a media which is incapable of proper analysis.
What a goon this guy is.
Some of his own columns carry more than the faintest whiff of the hatred he accuses us of; in fact, many of them reek of it, with a dollop of paranoia on top. Who can forget his contention earlier this year that every bad thing that’s happened to them in the last four years – and to Rangers before them – was the fault of bigots at other clubs?
Yesterday’s article is the frothing pinnacle of his own narrow view. Every word in it is based on ridiculous suppositions; he’d have you believe he’s a mind reader now, knowing not only what Barton wants but what club officials around the country are likely to do in January.
Not a single word of it is supported by a single fact; it’s howling at the moon.
Barton will have no shortage of offers, he says.
Because, of course, he’s done so much to justify them. Like flopping in the SPL. Like turning an entire support against him. Like causing so much chaos in the dressing room that he’s not even able to train with the first team squad. Like mouthing off about internal issues to the media afterwards.
All of that really makes him look like a risk worth taking, doesn’t it? As does the fact that no matter which club he’s at the star of the show – the centre of the universe – will still be Joey Barton. The circus goes with him like night follows day. Every club is looking for someone like that, aren’t they? Especially those relegation threatened sides which need discipline, focus and all hands on deck, right? Yes, this one is a no-brainer for them.
Barton wants to play football more than he wants the money.
That’s another great line. Barton wasn’t interested in actually getting stuck in; he would have stayed in England and played in the EPL if he wanted that. But this goon thinks it was the “challenge” of playing in Scotland he really craved. Some challenge, as he himself pointed out to his fellow Sevco players. He thought this would be a cakewalk. He thought he could breeze around the pitch, against vastly inferior footballers, getting by on his reputation, and filling his pockets at the same time.
He came here on holiday.
If he had the heart and the guts to test himself he’d have done it by staying at Burnley and taking on top stars week in week out.
Pointing this stuff out makes you a hater though. It makes you an Internet Bampot. It makes you a fool.
God knows what refusing to acknowledge it makes you; a Daily Record writer, apparently, which is pretty telling in itself.
Bottom line. I think if Barton had to spend the next two years taking his cheques from Ibrox and playing celebrity golf I don’t think he’d give a toss.
Yet aside from basing his entire argument – and a weak one at that – on the notion that it’s Celtic fans and others who are making a ridiculous case for saying getting rid of Barton will be a lot harder than he makes it sound, there’s one other element to the article that jumped out at me and on its own tells you the kind of person we’re dealing with.
He says that the best thing all round is for all parties to get around the table, hammer out a financial settlement and then top it off with a non-disclosure agreement. He never explains his rationale for this, but in that assertion you can see, clearly, what’s wrong with these folk. They would rather live in ignorance than confront hard truths. They would rather not know things than be told stuff that makes them think outside their box.
Let me put it this way, anything worth making sure he kept secret is something the fans have a right – perhaps even a need – to know. If there are problems inside Ibrox and Barton can shed light on them, why wouldn’t their supporters want that information?
Who would rather not know, to have issues eat away at the club from the inside?
This is how they got here, you know. And this is how the paper got here, to where it barely sells a third of what it once did. Any publication that thinks this guy is worth a column – and which also frequently seeks out the views of the semi-coherent John Brown – who this morning is telling the world he has no fears that Celtic will go on to ten in a row (aye, right. It must be thought of running out of rubbing alcohol that keeps him up at night) – is one dying on its arse, and which deserves to.