The Premier League season kicked off yesterday – with none of the expected top 3 in action. In these days of Sky TV Man United, City or Chelsea rarely kick off at 3pm on a Saturday – with some fairly lacklustre games and results. Draws a plenty with Bolton thumping QPR to take top spot (after 1 game, with several other matches still to be played, at least) in the days standout result. Wolves also won their early season relegation six-pointer against Blackburn.
The most eventful scenes of the day were at St James Park where, although not repeating their 4-4 all heroics of last season, Newcastle held Arsenal to a nil all draw. The player with all the headlines following the match is Joey Barton. Seemingly on his way out of Newcastle 10 days ago, following squabbles about contracts and twitter, Barton started against Arsenal and managed to stay on the field for the full 90 minutes.
Having been stamped on by Alex Song – an act missed by the officials and one which will bring an inevitable retrospective ban for the Arsenal man – Barton was booked for dragging Gervihno up by the neck following a perceived dive and being slapped by the Brazilian in the same incident (and saw the Arsenal striker red carded on his league debut) it was a normal day at the office for Barton. It should be pointed out that it was a slap by the Arsenal man and not a punch as Barton tried to tell Robin Van Persie after the event or an elbow which Steven Taylor was telling the referee (although Taylor while interviewed by ESPN after the game claimed that he didn’t see anything at all!! Do yourself a favour Steven!) and Gervihno fully deserved a straight red card.
Bartons involvement started when trying to pick Gervihno up after he was felled/tripped in the penalty area. It looked to m as though there was contact and in truth Gervihno wasn’t exactly claiming for a penalty so the ‘diving’ claims seem harsh. Barton incensed by the perceived cheating stepped over to get involved and a melee ensued. A melee of such prominence that even Arsene Wenger saw everything that took place!
Barton is a real puzzle to me. I don’t believe there are very many better midfielders in the Premier League. He is in so many ways the perfect player – strong in the tackle, combatative, a workhorse, a skilful player, great passer of the ball and great striker of the ball (his goal scoring record speaks or itself). The difficulty is that to do all these things so well Barton plays on the edge the whole time. He walks a fine line between being hard and being so desperate to win that his emotions take over all too quickly.
Almost everything good that he does is countered with an act of rashness or stupidity and must be a managers nightmare in trying to control this whilst not losing the player within.
Without fights with teammates, incidents with cigars and assaults in fast food restaurants Barton could be a regular in the England team and be revered by fans and pundits alike. He is a player that fans love to hate but would love to have in their side. Sadly the image he portrays all too often is that of a thug and for me it’s a tragedy that this will always take prominence over the good that he does.
Is it too late to change his ways? Probably.
Does anyone care? Probably not. Barton is a sports journalists dream. Always good for a soundbite (especially now he’s discovered twitter!) and there is always a story to write about him.
The saddest thing is that these types of incidents take away from what is an excellent player. Players like Gerrard and Gascoigne before him have been allowed their over exuberant play (and plenty of dirty challenges to boot) but Barton will never be allowed that leniency. He isn’t perceived to be a pin up boy and instead is held up as public enemy number one whenever he makes a mistake.
It’s too late to do anything about it of course. Barton, I think, loves the role he has – the outlaw, hunted down by any authority figures, while protesting innocence at every opportunity. It’s a shame that a complete focus on becoming the player he can be cant happen while this crusade is on. He is hard done by at times but does little to help himself.
For his own sake I hope he finds the balance he needs.
