…I’d sack Sam Allardyce. Not for the crappy football, not for the league position, but simply for spending over £5m of the club’s money on Joey Barton.
Seriously, the lad is just trouble and the baggage he brings is not made up for by what he does on the pitch. How anyone in their right mind could possibly think he’s worth the effort is beyond me.
Update: You know your situation is bad when Stan Collymore is offering to help you.
I find it a little bit sickening - not to mention hypocritical - that managers and players are calling for an end to abuse from fans in the same week that Man Utd players have been accused of having gang-sex with a 19-year-old girl at their Christmas party.
Respect has got to be earned, and I’ve got no respect for some of these overpaid thugs and cowards.
The irony is that the United players wouldn’t even have had their Christmas party this week if the players at the party - including Jonny Evans, who has been indicated in an alleged rape - hadn’t been knocked out of the Carling Cup by Championship strugglers Coventry.
What has happened in Italy is crazy. I know they’re passionate about the game there but at the moment it seems there’s a strong current of violence and nastiness running just under the surface.
Already this season we’ve had away fans banned from certain fixtures because authorities are unable to police them or prevent incidents happening. Then a fan is shot in the neck, supposedly a warning shot from police (wouldn’t it have been better to shoot up in the air rather than at neck level?), prompting matches to be cancelled and abandoned and rioting to take place across the country.
This comes after last year when violence cost a policeman his life in Catania. It’s a sorry state of affairs and unless the authorities in Italy, both footballing and otherwise, take decisive action soon there’s a very real danger things will get worse.
Sad.
In complete contrast to what we saw from Dida, take a look at former Arsenal keeper Graham Stack (then on loan to Belgian side Beveren), and see how he deals with fans coming onto the pitch.
…hasn’t wanted to punch Sir Alex Ferguson in the groin at some stage?
I know I have but instead of punching I’d use a cannon.
He’s got some humorous lawyers though. I like this:
Joey strenuously denies the charge and welcomes the opportunity to clear his name in the public forum.
Just a reminder - this is what Barton did to Dabo. During training. In, what you might call, a public forum.
I hope he gets life and made share a cell with the Yorkshire Ripper.
Arsenal blog Goodplaya has a good section about the punishments handed out to Michael Ball and Michael Brown by the FA. It’s a subject we’ve covered before on this blog and yet again we see the outlooked of the game’s authorities is totally skewed.
How is it possible to justify three match bans for Kolo Toure and Jon Obi Mikel - and a four match ban for Emmanuel Adebayor - after the Carling Cup final for what was little more than pushing and shoving? No punches thrown. No violent conduct. No injuries or potential for injury to be suffered by any player.
Then you have Brown and Ball. Ball deliberately stamped on Cristiano Ronaldo and did it only with the purpose of hurting him and perhaps putting him out of the game. Brown headbutted Liverpool’s Xabi Alonso - the intent wasn’t as bad as Ball’s but it was still an act soley to cause pain to an opponent.
Yet they get the same three matches as the others. It’s absolute nonsense.
If the FA, and I get tired saying this, want to cut out violent conduct then they need to punish players far more when they behave like thugs. Fair enough, we’ll accept three match bans for ‘ungentlemanly conduct’ and general poor behaviour but we cannot possibly accept bans like that when people who set out to hurt other players are treated the same way.
It’s like sentencing a shoplifter and rapist to the same amount of prison time. Only in the twisted world of the FA does the disciplinary procedure make any kind of sense.
BREAKING NEWS: Joey Barton claims Hulk Hogan. Fight to take place after school some time.
BREAKING NEWS: Joey Barton punches Joan Jett right in the vagina.
BREAKING NEWS: Joey Barton declares war on terror.