Joey Barton, QPR player, Twitter enthusiast. Photo credit: Joey Barton (Twitpic)
The background
As the dust settles on the most thrilling final day to a Premier League season ever one shocking incident is attracted the most heated debate and comment – Queens Park Rangers’ captain Joey Barton’s moment of madness in his team’s pulsating 3-2 loss at Manchester City. With the crunch game poised at 1-1, Barton irresponsibly and spectacularly lost his rag. He was shown a red card for an elbow on City’s Carlos Tevez but wasn’t about to go quietly down the tunnel. The midfielder proceeded to rake City striker Sergio Aguero’s leg with his studs, attempted to head-butt City captain Vincent Kompany and then tried to confront Mario Balotelli, the Premiership’s other most ill-disciplined performer. Pretty astounding stuff from the (supposedly) ex-bad boy who insists he is a “pacifist.”
The wider significance of Barton’s Manchester meltdown
Barton’s antics meant that five minutes injury time were added on at the Etihad Stadium and it was in those five minutes that Manchester City scored twice to wrestle the title away from arch rivals Manchester United (who won 1-0 at Sunderland). That prompted The Guardian to run a game timeline story entitled “How Joey Barton handed Manchester City the Premier League title,” in which the newspaper suggested that Barton’s red card ”gave City the man advantage and the vital extra minutes they needed.”
Understandably, United fans are pretty damn furious with wild man Barton. In fact, so is pretty much everyone in football. There are vociferous calls on QPR fan messageboards for the club to dump Barton in the summer. In characteristic fashion, social media afficianado Barton has taken to Twitter to defend his actions and hit out at his opponents.
The head was never gone at any stage, once I’d been sent off, one of our players suggested I should try to take 1 of theirs with me…
— Joseph Barton (@Joey7Barton) May 13, 2012
To those same nuggets, the ones that constantly wrote us of all season. See u in the Premiership next season… #comeonur‘sss
— Joseph Barton (@Joey7Barton) May 13, 2012
Barton has lots of previous
To say Barton is no stranger to on-the-field controversy is the understatement of the century. Here is The Periscope Post‘s top five Barton meltdowns. Expect rash challenges and mindless violence.
How long should Barton be banned for? Should QPR strip him of the captain’s armband? Leave a comment and let us know your thoughts?