To think Joey Barton should be setting a good example & not a bad one

[Aftereightsaremine]

Dh is arsenal fan & was watching game against Newcastle yesterday I was passing through at time Barton was viciously hauling a player up.

So aibu that at this time following this weeks rioting he should be behaving in a more exemplary manner & an example set by banning him for at least 3 games & fining him 6 weeks wages so footballers can start setting example to others.

Dh thinks iabu? I dont

[mayorquimby]

"Let the first person who doesnt retaliate in the workplace stand up and criticise, are we not all parents who should set a good example?"

I've never put out a cigar on a trainees eye
I've never kicked the crap out of a colleague so that they needed hospital treatment and then later describe them as a "pussy" for making a big deal out of it
I've never kicked seven shades of shite out of someone outside of a McDonalds

You're bang on about his appeal for his brother to turn himself in and pointing out the inaccuracies of those claims.
But lets not try and portray Barton as someone who is being scapegoated. He gets the media attention because he is a self-publicising prick and a thug. There's only so often that you can talk about how you've reformed and are sick of people dragging up your past before people realise they are hollow words and you're a bit of a joke as Barton has done repeatedly.
His twitter ramblings show that he loves the lime-light and is trying to portray himself as a type of intellectual who is immune from the trappings of his fellow professionals and someone who does not conform to the stereotype of the normal footballer.
He also did well last season in not retaliating when he punched Morten Pedersen for bumping into him. So as well as being a bit of a thug it's clear he's also a coward as thus far his publicised attacks have concerned a 15 year old supporter on the man city tour,a youth player at a christmas party, a guy on the ground outside mcdonalds, an attack on Dabo from behind in which by all accounts he didn't fight back and a punch on one of the least agressive and skinnier of players Pedersen.

[mumxx]

KDDD...lol it is so unjust isnt it....How about at the christmas party someone lights the arm of your jacket with a lighter and as you lift your arm in shock you catch them in the face with your cigar??

Oh but ofcourse that could never have happened that way, infact forget I ever wrote that as I would obviously be lying about it!

[ShellyBoobs]

like many footballers he doesnt always make good choices

Such as these (from BBC news) relating to the actions that led to his jailing...

"Barton had drunk 10 pints of lager and five bottles of lager during the night" Not a good choice, I'd agree there.

"Joey Barton was caught on CCTV knocking an unidentified man to the ground. He then straddled him and punched him four or five times" Another not exactly ideal choice.

"...the Premier League player punched him up to 15 times more." Again, there would have been better choices.

"Minutes later, the midfielder attacked a 16-year-old, punching him and leaving him with broken teeth. " Probably not the best choice under the circumstances.

So yes I'd agree he doesn't always make the best choices, but hey, others make poor choices too. They just don't usually involve extreme violence, like Barton's bad choices seem to.

[ShellyBoobs]

How about at the christmas party someone lights the arm of your jacket with a lighter and as you lift your arm in shock you catch them in the face with your cigar??

Oh but ofcourse that could never have happened that way, infact forget I ever wrote that as I would obviously be lying about it!

If it was an accident it's odd that the club fined him 6 weeks' wages, isn't it?

[mumxx]

Mayorquimby, you follow him on twitter?

Tell me, if someone follows you for nearly half a mile through town - into Mcdonalds, hurling abuse, calling guests in your company all the abusive names under the sun, to the point where you leave rather then contront them, they continue to follow you being as abusive....would you not find it difficult to not retaliate..

Look Im not trying to defend every action, I cant convert peoples opinions. and everyone can have an opinion, My problem is referring to the whole family as scum.....

[mayorquimby]

• when I say bang on I mean you are dead right. I didn't mean you were banging on about it as though somehow it was irrelevant.

[mumxx]

Do you know what...whilst your going on about joe...I suppose your leaving someone else alone...

As you were :)

[mayorquimby]

I might find it difficult but I wouldn't retaliate.
But ok lets say I accept your justification of that attack (I don't but for the sake of argument let's say I do), what's the justification for the others.
The 15 year old boy
Dabo (and years later referring to him as a pussy,when he is supposedly a reformed sole he still feels the need to insult a former colleague he attacked and put in hospital)
Morten gamst Pedersen

And no I don't follow him on twitter (not really sure how to operate twitter, never got into it) but his tweets are quite widely reported and without fail when they are reported they make him out to be a monumental prick with an ego problem.

Oh and I wouldn't tar his whole family as scum as I don't know his whole family.
He's a scummy thug and his brother is a scummy thug but apart from that the rest of the family may be saints.

[mumxx]

try listening to him on 5live now and tell me he is scum

[EdithWeston]

I've just heard a bit about him on Ch4 News: he's admitted "going down easy" yesterday, but "you can't put your hands up" (I suppose that means admit it).

That's cheating, isn't it?

(Still, going back to The Hand of God etc, football tolerates cheats, doesn't it?)

[evenlessnarkypuffin]

He isn't thick. He comes across well when interviewed. He has repeatedly talked about turning over a new leaf. And then gone on to violently assault people.

[evenlessnarkypuffin]

Words are cheap. He gets annoyed, on the pitch with hundreds of thousands of people watching on tv and loses any sense of acceptable behaviour, hauling someone up by their neck.

[80sbabe]

Interesting that everyone seems to have missed the events leading up to the one commented on in the op.

I am not a fan of Joey Barton or Newcastle Utd for that matter, I agree with all that has been said here about his criminal record and his compulsion for thuggery and violence.

However this whole match was badly refereed from what I saw.
Barton had been deliberately stamped on earlier by Song - an incident missed by both ref and linesman, oh yes and Mr Wenger "didn't see it" either funnily enough.
When Barton hauled Gervinho up and the fight started the ref had his back turned to them !

Now, if you want to start a brawl or turn a game into a 22 man scrap, there is no better way to go about it to my mind than stamping on the leg of a man like Joey Barton. He was always going to look for some kind of retribution after that.

Should he be playing in the premiership ? No not in my opinion and he is most certainly no role model for young children.
However Newcastle United employ him and select him for their squad, so sadly this is unlikely to be the last time this season he is involved in controversial events.

[KenDoddsDadsDog]

Yeah you are right 80s babe. Most of the game was poorly disciplined. There were a few players who acted disgracefully and Barton took all the headlines.
Barton was on a free transfer for slating the club on twitter so it's bizarre he was on the pitch.

[mayorquimby]

"try listening to him on 5live now and tell me he is scum"

Which was my point about him earlier on, there's no doubt he can speak well and comes across as talking sense a lot of the time. Unfortunately his actions consistently contradict his promises. As I said earlier he's become a joke in football circles because when you hear someone give the same bullshit reformed character speech time and time again which end with him painting himself as a victim of the media who are dragging up past issues and not letting him get on with his new reformed life you can't take them seriously.
If it happens once, you think good on him. as most did.
Twice you go, right ffs but cop on now.
The 3rd time it's a bit of a joke but many people were pleasently suprised by his frank opinions post the 2006 world cup and 2008 qualifiers when he complained about the attitude of many modern footballers. SO everyone went, great this is it, Barton has grown up hopefully he'll put all that shit behind him.
Then he does it again.
He's gotten away with it for a few years precisely because he is a good talker when interviewed. However everyone now can plainly see that he's a toxic influence on almost every club he goes to, hence nobody wanting to touch him with a barge pole despite being on a free transfer.
So I think I'll take his past actions. Once again... putting out a cigar on a youth team players eye, repeatedly punching a man on the ground, punching a 16 year old, getting in a fight with a 15 year old fan on a pre-season tour, punching Gamst Pederson and hospitalising Dabo with an attack from behind later pretending to regret this and being a reformed character before describing Dabo as a pussy years later showing he doesn't really regret it... over a 5-live interview.

"he's admitted "going down easy" yesterday, but "you can't put your hands up" (I suppose that means admit it)."

No he's talking about Gervinho raising his hands. SO he's saying "I did dive, but he put his hands up and that is a red card offence." and he's right in that respect. Gervinho did deserve to get sent off.

"
(Still, going back to The Hand of God etc, football tolerates cheats, doesn't it?)"

Most sports seem to. Especially contact sports.

[mayorquimby]

I'd imagine that Song will get a 3 match ban for the stamp. I can't see how he could avoid one.
As for yesterday I don't think Barton did much wrong on the pitch at all, bar the going down easy part. But ARsenal fans are media darlings and their fans are a precious bunch so they were always going to focus on Barton.

[MollieO]

Did no one see him being stamped on before that incident? That player wasn't sent off was he? There are very few footballers in today's game you would consider role models. I'm struggling to think of a single one that I'd want ds to look up to. Fortunately ds can't stand football.

[LetUsPrey]

Was going to come back and say that he had been stamped on earlier in the match and IMO Song was lucky not to be sent off. And Wenger-Vision was in full operation.

But Wenger isn't the only manager to not see certain events. Barton is not the only player to get involved when he shouldn't or lose his temper on the pitch or take a dive. For me, it's his antics off the pitch that are the bigger issue for me.

I do wonder how much - particularly at Prem clubs - gets swept under the carpet.

However, this thread is about Barton and I still think he's a pillock.

[LetUsPrey]

And previewing the post does not prevent repeated "for me" in one sentence!

[defineme]

You are being unreasonable.

My kids will never see footballers as role models, despite ds2 enjoying playing the game, because we have a sensible idea of what role models should be in this family. We enjoy watching sport, but that doesn't mean that we have to idolise the athletes or whoever in this ridiculous way. It's wonderful to watch sport men and women in their prime, but that doesn't mean I attribute any particularly great things to their character-I save that for people I actually know...

I'm from Newcastle and one of the things I always hated about the place was the ridiculous position football had in the town.

Can't believe people actually follow these people on twitter either.

It's our job as parents to provide good role models and bring our kids up with a sense of proportion about football and its importance.

[robotlollypopman]

Not Barton's biggest fan but I would have done the same as him yesterday. Gervinho cheated. He deliberately tried to win a penalty for Arsenal. If you play well and work hard for over an hour to try to defend and somebody tries to undo that by diving, you'd get pissed off too. Gervinho raised his hand. Barton didn't have to try and get him sent off, that action results in a red card anyway, which is what Barton said afterwards.

Plus, nobody is mentioning the fact that just before the incident, Alex Song (another Arsenal player) stamped on him and got away with it.

So whilst he is no angel, I think there are many people on here who know fuck all about football who are basing all their views on his reputation.

[mumxx]

defineme....you give the most sound answer :)

We as parents should be the role models, we should not rely on others to do our job

[Birdsgottafly]

i agree with defineme- we should afford football and those that play it, the importance that it and they deserve, instead of giving them any respect without them or theirs earning it.

[LetUsPrey]

robot Don't know whether you had chance to read all the posts but I mentioned the Gervinho dive (although can't remember whether I said it was to get a penalty) and said Barton was stamped on earlier and Song was lucky not to be sent off.

Took me ages to type it too as I'm not on the pc!

[80sbabe]

mayorquimby Unfortunately the stamp was not seen by the official or the ref and Song didn't get disciplined despite it being clearly caught on camera.
Had it been noted he'd have been red carded but there is no retrospective penalising in football - so he got away with it.