Joey Barton has often been described as football’s personification of marmite who have fans have mixed opions on. Over the weekend The Sunday Times reported (and I use that word loosely) that Sir Alex Ferguson was thinking about bringing Barton back to Manchester for a fee of around £2million.
It would be fair to say that Barton has had his fair share of personal issues that have taken the attention off of his playing career. Many pundits and fans thought that he was lucky to be given a second chance in the Premier League after being offloaded by Manchester City at the end of the 2006/07 season when Newcastle United signed him.
It would also be fair to say that at initially at Newcastle due to his past demeanours that very few fans of the Toon Army wanted Barton at their proud football club. It took Barton time to win those fans over and after staying at Newcastle following their relegation to the Championship back in 2009, he certainly proved his worth last season and formed a great midfield partnership with Kevin Nolan.
Forgetting Barton’s past problems there is no doubt that he is somebody who should have achieved more in the game than what he has done. Very quickly he broke into City’s team and was arguably their best player in his last 2 seasons at a time when City would only get into the UEFA Cup via the fair-play league and were light-years away from attracting the kind of players that they are able to bring in today.
Barton to his credit has admitted that he has made mistakes and has certainly won plaudits for his honesty and maturity over the last year or so. His out-spoken views of some of England’s key players over the last couple of years (who have disappointed at the last two World Cups) have also been somewhat ‘refreshing’ to hear whether or not he is a better player or not than the players he has criticised.
In terms of a box-to-box midfielder, Barton does possess good qualities. He is not scared to make a challenge, can score and create goals and is someone who clearly has a ‘hunger’ in games who can motivate his team mates.
But with midfielders like Anderson, Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher in our squad and young talent like Paul Pogba coming through; Barton just wouldn’t be needed at us regardless of his improved form last season.
He would certainly be a good option for teams in the Premier League who are trying to make a challenge to break into the European places and if he were to leave Newcastle this summer, there would defiantly be clubs who would think about buying him. Someone like Arsenal who have been crying out for a ‘tough guy’ in midfield would certainly need a player of his quality more.
By @ADennehey87
