Barton’s right, and should leave Manchester City this summer
Joey Barton is an interesting character, but there are two things he is known for above everything else:
He can be an absolute ass, and most of the time he’s being an ass, he’s right.
So when Barton bashes his own club, people take notice. Manchester City fans may not like him saying it and its unprofessional (he’s wrong for complaining in public about his club), but he’s also right.
Manchester City’s transfer signings haven’t worked out. The players they have aren’t motivated enough on the pitch. The team hasn’t gelled together as a unit.
The thing you have to watch is - can Manchester City recover next season? Pearce has already talked about the need for investment, and while there are indicators that he might be retained next year as manager nothing is certain - not investment, not the manager and certainly not the position of the team’s top players.
The biggest problem for me with Manchester City is their failure to play as a team. That starts with bonding in the dressing room (no, not that type of bonding) and being friends outside football. Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United have their team spirit to thank for their consistency each season - when that’s lacking, the team suffers, as Manchester City are doing.
The second problem is the manager. It’s his responsibility to get the best out of his players, and there are signs that he’s not able to do that. Let’s face it, if the players aren’t good enough and they aren’t cooperating, then no matter what level you’re playing out you should be looking to clear them out in the transfer season.
Pearce has had a tough season, but it’s been partially his own doing. City are under the cosh, and they’re not helping themselves if they cant get along in the dressing room.
And Barton - Barton should leave Manchester City this summer. One, he’s too good to be in the team, and the team show no sign of progressing. Two, this is his time to fix his reputation. He’s one of football’s bad boys, but a move to a club like Everton or Blackburn and a solid season will do his career a lot of good.
Barton:
“If I was a fan I wouldn’t have paid to watch us at home this season.
…
You have to face facts. We have not brought quality in. One or two have done all right but not enough to take the team onto the next level.
We can’t gamble on players who have scored six goals in six games in the Pontins League or in Belgium.”
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barton shud be signed by MU to replace Keane at DM!
Ta for that. Yet another balanced argument for a red slating Man City…
How is it going to improve his career with the discipline problems Blackurn and Everton have?
We’ll beat you in the derby and then you can shut up with your negative bollocks.
Is this writer real? Join Everton or BLACKBURN!!!! Cos Blackburn would be such a big step up. Im sure playing in front of 15000 fans in a team no better than his own would appeal to him. Take it Ahmed is from Blackburn?
How do you work out that he would be better off at the great Blackburn then? They are a small tin pot club based in a crap town. Who would ever want to live there? City have much more potential than Blackburn could ever have and I would have thought any half decent journalist with any kind of football knowledge would know that.
Are you slighting the team or the city? If you have anything against the city, that’s a different question altogether. As far as the team is concerned, you’re a City fan, I don’t think you’ll ever admit to Blackburn having more potential than you.
Seriously though, you think Blackburn have bettet potential than City? How can that be? Smaller stadium, less turnover, smaller crowd, similar level players…. I dont see how you can conclude that. Maybe when Jack Walker was alive but they have no more potential than the likes of Wigan.
Haha, of all laughable stories you can access on the net this must be one of the most ridiculous I’ve read in a long time.
I started off thinking “is this writer for real”. And that was before the “Joey Barton must leave Man City, he should go to a club like Everton or Blackburn” quote.
Shame you didn’t include Stoke as well.
Well done though, Ahmed. Nice comedy site this.
James - similar level players - I disagree. Better manager, and far better team spirit.
Are you a United fan Ahmed?
If so, then the piece will most likely have some bias against City and having read your articles, you’ve rarely got anything good to say about the club. If I thought Blackburn had more potential than City I’d say so. I’m not saying that City are the better team, or that the club is in a better state, far from it, but we’ve got some quality players, five or six excellent ones coming through from the academy and a manager who’s learning all the time. We spent £500,000 this season - Blackburn spent around £8 million. That’s not a huge outlay, but in comparative terms it’s not a huge shock they’re more successful than us. In terms of potential, Blackburn haven’t got the same level of academy as us, nor the support, nor the potential investment that’ll happen in the summer and so I would say that if all goes to plan then Barton’ll be better served to stay with us next season.
By the way, your selective quoting where you’ve missed the positive things he said about the club is typical hack journalism. Well done.
Apart from Micah Richards and Joey Barton, there’s very little good stuff to say about City this season. I really liked Pearce last season and I’m surprised that he hasn’t pulled through this season.
but we’ve got some quality players, five or six excellent ones coming through from the academy
You sound like Arsenal
and a manager who’s learning all the time
Has he learned this season? Doesn’t show mate. It hurts because I thought he’d be an excellent manager, but he’s failed so far.
Selective quoting - excuse me, I’ve linked to the article, the quotes are there for everyone to see. The positive things he’s saying is to balance his argument so he doesn’t come across as too negative. The meat of his statement, that’s what I’ve quoted. I haven’t implied that it’s all he said, so before you fly off your handle again because I don’t rate Man City at least drop the assumptions and get your facts straight.
“Apart from Micah Richards and Joey Barton, there’s very little good stuff to say about City this season. I really liked Pearce last season and I’m surprised that he hasn’t pulled through this season.”
Wrong. Yet again, you show how little you know of the club. Nedum Onouha? Richard Dunne? Michael Johnson? Emile Mpenza?
In terms of scoring goals we’ve been woeful certainly, so you’re right in that respect, but the rest of the team is fairly good and the defence is the fifth or sixth bext in the premiership, despite us not paying £30 mill for a centre half who “murks” himself. Other things that are good. We’ve won the academy and reserve titles this season, which points to a strong youth set up. But you don’t know about that do you? Hack.
“You sound like Arsenal ”
Fair enough. You can’t rely on youth teamers coming good forever, but I’d rather know we have the option, unlike Man U who can only steal youngsters off other clubs. The latest hot talent off the Man Yoo production line? O’Shea? Fletcher? Richards…. hang on…. I don’t think that’s too promising is it?
“Selective quoting - excuse me, I’ve linked to the article, the quotes are there for everyone to see. The positive things he’s saying is to balance his argument so he doesn’t come across as too negative. The meat of his statement, that’s what I’ve quoted. I haven’t implied that it’s all he said, so before you fly off your handle again because I don’t rate Man City at least drop the assumptions and get your facts straight.”
Get my facts straight? Okay. Well I do know that I’ve listened to the full two-minute long quote from Joey, and I can assume you haven’t, because if you have, you’ve chosen to like, the BBC did, ignore a lot of the things he said. I agree with the bulk of the stuff to - it’s not been good enough, but he’s wrong about the money spent. Anyway - give the full interview a listen,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/default.stm (if that doesn’t work, it’s on the BBC football homepage, and the other stuff from his interview is on the City website, so fill your boots)
Then next time you can be well informed, before you try and slate a club. And wouldn’t that be good?
One, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re over-reacting
Here I see hundreds of people daily who don’t rate Man Utd for one reason or the other, and I let it go, because as far as I’m concerned they don’t know where they’re coming from.
So it’s a bit funny to see you getting antsy about this.
Two, I’m rating players according to how much they can pull the club out of trouble. I don’t see Mpenza or Dunne doing that over the course of a season, despite the fact that Dunne is a good player.
Consistent results are a reflection of the team’s quality - how consistent are Man City?
That centre-half you talk about is an excellent defender, and you’d kill to have him if you could a) afford him and b) get over your United bias.
Of course, I probably expect a comment about money and maybe even something on the Glazers
We’ve won the academy and reserve titles this season, which points to a strong youth set up. But you don’t know about that do you? Hack.
Again with the assumptions. I thought I told you to stop that
The latest hot talent off the Man Yoo production line?
Guiseppe Rossi - one of the top young Italians out there, is doing quite well with Parma in the Serie A at the moment and his 7 goals in 14 games are partially responsible for pulling Parma out of the relegation zone.
Jonny Evans - one of the best centre-backs in the Championship, and this kid’s what, 19?
Gerard Pique - one of the best young centre-backs to come out of Spain for a long, long time.
Craig Cathcart, Danny Simpson, Darren Gibson and Sam Hewson are just four more names.
And the players you’re making fun of? Fletcher has actually turned into a decent backup midfielder, and outside the top four you’d be silly not to have him in your team.
O’Shea is as good a utility squad player as you can find. He’s not top class, yes, he’s not, so? He’s fairly decent.
Richardson? Well ok, so you got us there
My view is that he needs a whole season of playing in the Prem to get his game going. Maybe Man City can take him on loan?
Actually, there you go assuming again. I HAVE gone through the whole quote, and a lot of it is fluff about the team. It’s a shame if the only interesting thing about his interview to me is the fact that he’s speaking against his club. I can assure you that I wouldn’t cover it if all I heard was praise.
Why? Is that my desire to push City down? Not really. Do I need a new story to get hits? Not really, I’ve already got a backlog of 20-30 pieces that I want to write.
I wrote about it because I had an opinion. I also picked a specific segment from his interview to highlight what I was talking about.
If he’s wrong about the money spent, then tell me more about that, cuz I’d really like to listen to what you have to say.
But please don’t go around assuming stuff about me
I also criticised Barton for the way he spoke about his club in public. Did you catch this bit? Up top, near the start of the article.
Fair enough. I don’t want to make unfair assumptions about you. I felt the tone of the article ignored any comments he made that were positive to the club, and if you’ve listened to what he said it’s harder to understand, but if you assume that he’s not serious in those positive comments that I understand I suppose.
Honestly - Richard Dunne is one of the most underrated players in the premiership. He’s been a rock this season, as he has over the last four or five years, and he’s going to in his third consecutive player of the season award for Man City shortly. Not too impressive maybe, but if you watched him week in week out, you’d see his worth. He is the kind of player who’ll save you points, and his golie-like save using his chest from Andy Johnson, to save us a point was an example of his commitment and quality. Mpenza will almost certainly turn out to be a flash in the pan, in the end, but as it is his two goals, and all around excellent play in holding the ball and leading the line have kept us away from relegation. His two goals secured the three points and thatb was at a crucial time, as Charlton and We’ ‘Am were looking to build momentum.
Consistant results do not necesserily show a team’s quality. You wouldn’t say Bolton are a team built up of quality players, yet they’re consistant, and Tottenham and Newcastle are inconsistant, despite having squads with players who could very well get into the top four. City aren’t consistant, but we certainly have quality in the team. Plenty of players who we’ve brought through the academy, and a few purchases make a team that’s underachieved this season due to a paucity of talent up front. Apart from that, the team could be certainly camped in the top half of the table. It’s not the only factor - Pearce is inexperienced, the mindset around the club is not turned towards winning, we’re in serious debt and don’t produce transfer funds, but consistancy is not the only mark of quality. Cristiano Ronaldo in previous seasons is an example of that.
I swear I wouldn’t take Ferdinand. He’s not worth £30 mill as you well know (especially if Vidic is £8m) and I rather take Dunne any day. I’d be safe from getting murked anyway.
Don’t make assumptions about me - as you say. Why would I mention the Glazers? It’s no question that the divisions in cash are bad for football, but football’s a business, and I wouldn’t turn down sizable investment into the club providing it was the right buyer. That’s the only thing - I think United is a club that’s lost it’s soul and I wouldn’t want a takeover that could make City lose ours.
We’ve won the academy and reserve titles this season - I wish I hadn’t said that. We blew the academy one tonight, despite having it nearly sewn up. Bolton won it (I will say that when they played out reserve team, we played our actual reserves and they played Stelios and Nolan). Not bitter though.
Guiseppe Rossi I’ll give you. He didn’t make it in the Prem though, with Newcastle, but that’s the striker’s graveyard, so there you go. Gerard Pique was nicked off Barca.
The point I want to make though, is that you might have an equally good reserve team as ours, but the players don’t get through to the team the way they once did. (that’s to do with a club losing it’s soul and roots) and can you see Jonny Evans getting in before Vidic and Ferdinand and Silvestre and Evra and Heinze and the Neviller?
What do you think about the lack of opportunities for youngsters at the club?
Barton is wrong about the money spent. There’s a link to the amount we’ve spent since the transfer window opened here
http://www.purelymancity.com/index.php/features/transfer-window-special-how-our-spending-compares/
(Spurs and Newcastle have underachieved considering their outlay)
but I can tell you we’ve spent the least since then. Keegan spent £44 mill, and Pearce has made a profit of £17 mill, and I think it’s that that irks me about the article. It’s not what you’ve written so much, but what Barton’s said. He’s right in some ways, but to hit out at the spending is unfair and misinformed, and so I apologise for attcking you personally when it might seem unfair. Some of the stuff you said was wrong though.
And we’ll never really see eye-to-eye will we? Red and blue just doesn’t mix.
Thanks for the reasoned reply. I’m sure we’ll keep disagreeing.
Rossi didn’t make it in the Prem? Rossi got very few chances at Newcastle, most of them as late subs. At Parma he’s a regular starter, and that’s what players need at this age.
Pique was brought in from Barca just as Rossi was brought in from abroad as well. How does that change things? You can bring in young kids from other clubs, that’s scouting (and money and big club status) for you.
Evans, if you give him another year, will make it in the Prem. You should see this guy play, he’s got an excellent footballing brain.
the players don’t get through to the team the way they once did. (that’s to do with a club losing it’s soul and roots)
Actually, I think that’s the price you have to pay for success at the top level. Arsenal are playing with kids and they have failed miserably this season by their standards. You need experience and thoroughbred quality at the top level, and not every kid can do that.
People compare the current crop to the class of 96, but that’s unfair - that was a truly special bunch, and the Prem was a bit easier back then.
I’d even go so far as to say that part of United’s ‘youth’ strategy was to bring in high-quality talent like Ronaldo and Rooney in at an early stage and develop them at the club.
I don’t see how this automatically translates into a club losing its soul - if that’s true then it means that all top clubs are losing their soul in their race to win the Premiership.
A word on consistent performances - I think it would be a bit unfair on Bolton to say that they don’t have quality players. Notice however that I said team and not players - you may be able to judge the players’ quality separately but the team - an ensemble of players, management and transfer policy - can only be properly judged over a long period of results.
At least that’s what I think.
sign nolan and parker! better than OH!
what’s up with that?
I know, couldn’t believe it. I mentioned it in the last post. We would’ve won it if we’d won our last two games though, but we managed to blow it against someone rubbish(I forget who) and then we got battered by Boro a few days ago. We actually play our reserves though, to be fair. Bolton played Nolan and Teymourian and a few of their more experienced players.
That’s small time stuff though compared to losing out in the CL semi… what’d you think of that? Poor performance, or exceptional one by Milan, or what? What happened?
Sets you up nicely for a thrashing in the derby on saturday at least(something which I know will never ever happen, but it would be fantastic if we did it minus Cassius Barton)
I think we’ll scrape through with a win. Ok, I hope we’ll win
Forgot to say.
It’s funny looking back at people’s comments on Barton now. It’s funny to read what I actually wrote, because I didn’t really get my point across at all. Lots of City fans thought Barton was right in what he said, but to me it wasn’t really on. I don’t think anything good can come from a player publicly slagging his club. Not only that, but he has to be playing at an incredible level to get away with that, and he’s not covered himself in glory since then. Penalty miss versus Villa, plus kicking the daylights out of Dabo has made his words sound rather stupid, and he now will be moved on, as your piece says, but not really in the way people thought.
What’s interesting, and disgusting, really, is that there’s still a small minority of fans defending him and using this as a way to slate Pearce. I can take that his season’s not been a roaring success as manager, but how people can blame Barton’s actions on Pearce is beyond me. He’s indefensible, and as talented as he is, he’s a liability, and thse who are blinkered enough, or angry enough at Psycho, to miss that are deluded…
(I still prefer Barton to Keane though. Barton doesn’t go ending careers on a whim. He’s just a thug)