Joey Barton

Joey Barton is anything but uncomplicated, but whilst this should make him interesting he is actually an incredible bore.

Yet again Barton has found himself at the centre of controversy after his sending off against Norwich City which as usual he has decided is everyone else's fault but his own.

Since the inception of Twitter, Barton has attempted to reinvent himself into some kind of post modern sage for the masses, a cross between Tracy Emin and Eric Cantona whereas the reality is he is nothing more than a street urchin who has suddenly found himself with way too much money due to sporting talent - step forward Mike Tyson, John Terry and John Daly.

Barton's behaviour is volatile to say the least and whilst he claims to be vastly misunderstood his behaviour when his back is to the wall belies his true nature.

Players at Wolves would question his claims to be the voice of the common man. Earlier this season during his running feud with the Molineux men he felt it necessary to remind Karl Henry that 'he earned eighty grand a week' and enquired as to how much he took home every week. He is hardly a man of modesty nor a poster child for the working class after all. He then went on to abuse his fellow professional on Twitter calling him a 'Sunday League Player' and more eloquently a 'Mug'.

Barton is always quick to use the term 'hypocrite' at any given juncture but it is he who is the true one. Barton has accused the Norwich player Johnson of acting to get him sent off stating the 'best thespian wins'. How true that statement is, after all didn't he act impeccably to have Gervinho sent off in exactly the same manner (after provoking him by hauling him to his feet) at the beginning of the season?

Barton then of course blamed this incident for his 'move' to Arsenal falling through even though Wenger barely knew who he was until this point.

When pushed on the matter, Barton stated "My job is to do the best for my team, not to keep Gervinho on the pitch. There's more to football than kicking a ball....” Despite this Barton claims that it is everyone else but he that is the hypocrite.

Barton's latest tirade has even included talk of suing the referee with regard to his dismissal, these are simple distraction tactics which will only work on people with a similar level of IQ to he.

Barton claims to be treated unfairly by comparison to other footballers targeting the likes of Lampard and Gerrard whilst at the height of his clamour for an England place. Yet despite this he occupies an extreme minority in having a conviction for assault, having served a custodial sentence for that conviction and having stubbed out a cigar in the eye of a junior colleague.

The vast majority of professionals have also not been sent home from tours of Thailand for kicking children and nor have they been arrested and convicted (a separate conviction to the one above) of assaulting their team mates at training.

Barton claims to possess outstanding ability and but for his lack of pace we would not argue too much with that. The reality however is that his petulant, childish and violent manner provides a disruption to his team that far outweighs the benefits. Newcastle United have certainly flourished without him this season and QPR will be without him for the coming games due this petulance and maybe it is no bad thing - No Nonsense.