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The whole team was poor that day, but Barton was supposed to be a level above, or so he told us. Yes he ran around, trouble was he was suppose to be winning the ball for us and spreading it around, not just running aimlessly around. He wasn't the only one playing bad, as i've said but i don't think the support is in the wrong for hoping for better things from Barton.

 

Dunno who actually expected a level-above performance - IMHO he was having some banter with Brown et al, winding him (and the compliant Scottish (sic!) media) up. On that day Ibrahimovic, Ronaldo and Co. would have looked rotten by their standards, given the team-performance. And while I am at it, holding or defensive midfield players are rarely those who "shine" in games, no matter the name.

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It seems to me that plenty of defensive midfielders shine enough to become incredibly famous:

 

We could start with Souness as a Scottish and Rangers example, then through the ages the likes of Matthaus, Deschamps, Davids, Rijkaard, Sousa, Keane, Scholes, Essien, Viera, Gattuso, Alonso, Touré, Gerrard, Makélélé, etc...

 

Extras for Rangers we have since the Souness revolution: Wilkins, McCall, Reyna, Barry Ferguson, Hemdani and Mendes, who all made a far bigger impact and are generally fondly remembered even if their time with us was short.

 

Other notables who made more a name in the role for other clubs were Tugay, Nerlinger and Arteta.

 

In comparison, Barton's time with us was ignominious. He also shone enough to be Barnsley's player of the year in the previous season.

 

I think you are right in that sometimes a holding midfielder who is doing a very good job can escape much attention, but one that is doing a pretty mediocre job at best, is probably much more anonymous. I think that's the case with Barton for us.

Edited by calscot
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It seems to me that plenty of defensive midfielders shine enough to become incredibly famous:

 

We could start with Souness as a Scottish and Rangers example, then through the ages the likes of Matthaus, Deschamps, Davids, Rijkaard, Sousa, Keane, Scholes, Essien, Viera, Gattuso, Alonso, Touré, Gerrard, Makélélé, etc...

 

Extras for Rangers we have since the Souness revolution: Wilkins, McCall, Reyna, Barry Ferguson, Hemdani and Mendes, who all made a far bigger impact and are generally fondly remembered even if their time with us was short.

 

Other notables who made more a name in the role for other clubs were Tugay, Nerlinger and Arteta.

 

In comparison, Barton's time with us was ignominious. He also shone enough to be Barnsley's player of the year in the previous season.

 

I think you are right in that sometimes a holding midfielder who is doing a very good job can escape much attention, but one that is doing a pretty mediocre job at best, is probably much more anonymous. I think that's the case with Barton for us.

 

Burnley, not Barnsley but I agree with your sentiment.

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It seems to me that plenty of defensive midfielders shine enough to become incredibly famous:

 

We could start with Souness as a Scottish and Rangers example, then through the ages the likes of Matthaus, Deschamps, Davids, Rijkaard, Sousa, Keane, Scholes, Essien, Viera, Gattuso, Alonso, Touré, Gerrard, Makélélé, etc...

 

Extras for Rangers we have since the Souness revolution: Wilkins, McCall, Reyna, Barry Ferguson, Hemdani and Mendes, who all made a far bigger impact and are generally fondly remembered even if their time with us was short.

 

Other notables who made more a name in the role for other clubs were Tugay, Nerlinger and Arteta.

 

In comparison, Barton's time with us was ignominious. He also shone enough to be Barnsley's player of the year in the previous season.

 

I think you are right in that sometimes a holding midfielder who is doing a very good job can escape much attention, but one that is doing a pretty mediocre job at best, is probably much more anonymous. I think that's the case with Barton for us.

 

See ... the irony is that for some reason there was a certain kind of hysteria about the Barton signature, not so much here but in the media and elsewhere. A hysteria about this "marquee" signing that I failed to fathom, as Barton might have been a household name for your everyday Sky viewer, but sure not someone who stood out for his performances on the park (despite being apparently rather solid last season). Similar to people like Vinny Jones at Wimbledon or the like. Now, for some reason, it was apparently expected that he'd run Brown and Co. ragged on their pitch with a band of fellow freebies about him that had never faced the Scumhut's welcoming atmsphere. The team failed us admirably and I for one saw quite a hatchet job done on Barton for that performance ... as if he'd go out there and stroll it alone. That sentiment is visible in above's comments. Perhaps folk did not take too kindly that he had some banter with Brown and Co. as I noted above, and then "did not deliver". IMHO, he was not even given a chance to do so with us in a team ailing at so many levels back then.

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I think it's likely Barton though regarded by all in the game as a top professional footballer was more known for his indiscipline than his performances. And though we don't know the details of what happened at Rangers I think it's fair to say this wasn't his most spectacular outburst.

 

Now, for some reason, it was apparently expected that he'd run Brown and Co. ragged on their pitch with a band of fellow freebies about him

 

I think it was Joey himself who introduced that expectation.

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I don't think I'm in any way doing a hatchet job on Barton, but I must say that after his spat with Brown I gave him more of my attention while watching the game on TV, waiting for him to show himself as the class above he claimed to be. Now, like you say, a player doing well in his position can be less than noticeable; however, Barton to me was quite noticeable for his mistakes, giving the ball away, missing tackles and when he was beaten. He also did some ok stuff but like you say, it was less noticeable for being about what you'd expect rather than exceptional. His mistakes were below expectations.

 

His performance for me was summed up with the drop ball against Brown, where he looked pretty arrogant and to me even cheated slightly with his stance over the ball -and still lost out.

 

Brown had a far better performance albeit in a better team performance, but the problem is, like others, I don't rate him very highly as a player.

 

I can't see how that is a hatchet job - and to me, the claims of that are way out of proportion to the criticism.

 

Joey Barton obviously turned out to be a big mistake for Rangers, I can't see a case for the defence against that.

 

He came on a fanfare, with a reputation and mouthed off in the press and twitter about how he would be the best player in Scotland, no matter how well you think he played, he did not live up to his own hype, but instead of getting on with it, he then lost it and mouthed off to the players and manager.

 

In the end, the negativity he was adding was much larger than the positives of his performances.

 

Due to his attitude and how little he contributed, not many Rangers fans were sad to see him go, nor have any fond memories. I doubt that has much at all to do with the rubbish we get in the press.

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Might be argued that he didn't have time to show what he can do. Just like Kranjcar he had no pre season and definitely wasn't fit. If we had graded Kranjcar over the same period he too would have been crap. Niko was just gaining fitness while becoming used to the Scottish game and coming on to his game when we lost him.

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