Whatever your views on Joey Barton, you simply cannot ignore the man. Enigma is not a word suited to his playing abilities, for he has these in abundance. What does tend to confuse the footballing world however is the inconsistent nature of the diminutive Scouser. One moment he's stubbing out a fag in a team-mate's eye, the next he's citing the works of George Orwell on his beloved Twitter. What makes Barton enigmatic as such is his ability to bitterly disappoint us one day and fill us with pleasant surprise the very same evening.
I'm going to get it out of the way early, I'm a fan of Barton. I don't approve of the violence, nor the obscene language, and I hate the diving. I'm also not a fan of the victimised image he likes to portray at times. From these criticisms you may wonder how I can be a fan at all, but Barton isn't all bad, in fact he's far from it. Yes there are too many off-field misdemeanors to begin to mention here, but it's hard to hold a grudge when the man continuously provides what we as football fans crave at the end of the day: non-stop entertainment. Granted, he has angered many an opposition fan over the years with rash challenges and seemingly unsporting behaviour, but we cannot judge a footballer purely on his on-field performances, for he has the right to be granted a human identity just like the rest of us.
It's important to acknowledge Barton's qualities and the positive side of his debatable character. As previously mentioned, Barton has reveled in the ever-growing Twitter phenomenon, being the perfect character for this form of medium and the perfect account to add to your news feed. His (very) regular tweets range from the stereotypical contextual football-related updates, to the fantastic disputes with the general public, to intellectual philosophical interludes, all of which serve to keep you scrolling. The latter is what I believe separates Barton from the majority of footballers. His, some would say surprising, intelligence is not always evident when the familiar red mist descends on the football pitch, but he is clearly a thoughtful individual with more to his personality than first thought. This is what I mean by entertaining, for he manages to encourage many a bite from the irritating Piers Morgan, while maintaining the moral high ground over his many haters with clever uses of sarcasm and wit that is wasted on the majority of thugs who join twitter just to insult.
Some may say that Barton says what he says and does what he does to get a reaction, an attention seeker in other words. Is it really the real Joey Barton in his tweets? Does he actually read Orwell and ponder over Plato's theories? Only he knows, but he does a damn good job of it. His millions of followers don't follow him because they don't like him, they are genuinely interested in the man, waiting on his every word. It is refreshing to have a player such as him in the modern game. As opposed to Aaron Ramsay telling us whether he is happy or sad after a match, Barton absorbs us with his tweets. Just as Mick McCarthy and Ian Holloway provide a breath of fresh air among managers with their down to earth approach and dry sense of humour, Barton emphasises the importance of individuality in sport, as opposed to jumping on the bandwagon that many Premier League players have already succumbed to. Some may say that there are twice as many negative attributes to Barton's personality than there are positive, but the characteristics that make his personality are the same ones that make him such a good player and a tribute to the English game.
It is easy to dismiss Barton as a typical footballer, a thug, maybe even a criminal. But I believe he is exactly the opposite of that. He is his own person, and no one will be able to change him now. He offers good and bad, like us all, but he does it with a bang. Everyone will have their own opinion on the guy, but be it good or bad, whether you love him or loathe him, appreciate him for who he is, a refreshing enigma of the English game.
No comments:
Post a Comment