Another day and yet another set of Joey Barton tweets for the football community to chew over.
This time the self-absorbed Scouser has turned on the man who rescued him from the last set of football relationships he destroyed through the media, Neil Warnock.
Warnock signed Barton and made him QPR captain before his sacking last week, and following an interview in which he suggested his captain’s influence at Loftus Road was a negative one, Barton released a scathing, retaliatory attack.
Barton labelled Warnock “embarrassing”, accusing him of “blaming everyone but himself” and making “scapegoats out of others”, further twisting the knife by suggesting preparations for QPR’s crucial game with Wigam are the first time in a while the team has “actually [had] a plan and seem organised”.
Furthermore, Barton suggested that Warnock would do well to get another job if he told the truth about him and likened him to comedy manager Mike Bassett.
In short, the midfielder has acted like an idiot by not only kicking a man when he is down, but doing it to the manager who gave him a platform to re-establish himself.
He showed a complete lack of respect, both to Warnock and the QPR supporters who are presumably grateful for the job Warnock did.
He was also naive, clearly caught up in the popularity of his outbursts, and showed himself as far from the intellectual he purports himself to be, outmanoeuvred easily by Neil Warnock, who is by no means a Schiller or Shakespeare.
But, and this is a big but, it is important to point out, Barton is right: the way in which Warnock took his sacking was completely undignified.
The bitter pill for Warnock to swallow is not that he was removed from office too early, or that he wasn’t given backing, or even that nonsensical tripe that Twitter cost him his job; the cold, hard fact is the unavoidable truth that he can not cut it at the top level.
I am not going to patronise him in the way lots of people have and say that “he is a top, top Championship manager”, I will just face facts.
In his 30+ years as a manager, he has reached the Promised Land of the Premiership twice, and, to cut a long story short, he was relegated with Sheffield United then sacked at QPR.
Though he is frequently a breath of fresh air with his outspoken post-match interviews, tactically he is inferior to his Premier League rivals, and that is what has cost him.
Now I don’t want to imply support for Barton’s actions, merely agreement with some of his points.
I imagine he has alienated himself from QPR supporters and quite possibly some of the club’s existing staff including players.
Again, he has unnecessarily dug himself a hole to climb out of.
Yes he should be more careful with his words but the suggestion he had no right to say what he said is quite fascistic.
To deny a person the right to comment on his work, his colleagues, his industry etc is simply unacceptable and furthermore unrealistic in this day and age.
The old cliche of “what goes on in the dressing room stays in the dressing room” means nothing to me as a fan, what I care for is what goes on in public, and if Warnock is allowed to put his views across, then so is Barton.
I’ve also been listening to Adrian Durham on Talksport and naturally, he has adopted the anti-Barton stance, but naturally, I have adopted my anti-Durham stance.
It is quite simple really, and a rule well worth keeping in mind: whatever Adrian Durham says, instantly think the opposite.
Even a broken clock is correct twice a day, but put it this way, Adrian Durham can only aspire to the accuracy of the broken clock.
His opinion on matters such as this is so convoluted with his own bias that it is meaningless.
Durham refuses to analyse Barton with any degree of objectivity, like he does with most things, and that sets him apart from sports journalists of any merit.
The reason I mention Durham is that as I see it, he holds a wholly paradoxical position with regards to Barton.
Durham frequently calls for people to clamp down on Barton, to deny him the ability to air his views, to ignore him, condemn him, drop him, criticize him etc etc, whilst also devoting the majority of his shows to the QPR captain any time he takes to his Twitter.
It is clear that though Barton is no intellectual heavyweight, he is aware of consuming people like Durham into his media orbit, rendering criticism and praise all part of the same process of self-publicity.
Adrian, you are a pawn in Barton’s game, and you can not even see it.
If Barton’s words/ actions are so deplorable and so inane, then stop wasting our time by talking about them so much – any fan can do that, you get paid to offer something different.
By Chris Smith
chrissmithfootballblog 