Joseph Anthony Barton

marcus agrippa said:
What I don't get is this: someone throws up random quotations. How does that prove them intelligent?

All they are doing is regurgitating someone else's observations. It is the initial observation that's the mark of intelligence, not the parrotting thereof.
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As far as footballers are concerned understanding the meaning of those quotations, never mind using them in context, separates Barton from the herd.

Have you ever seen the twitter feeds of PL footballers?
 
marcus agrippa said:
What I don't get is this: someone throws up random quotations. How does that prove them intelligent?

All they are doing is regurgitating someone else's observations. It is the initial observation that's the mark of intelligence, not the parrotting thereof.
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It doesn't.

We have some right weirdos on the Caf who has chosen to gush over the former City player's every move/
 
Pogue Mahone said:
As far as footballers are concerned understanding the meaning of those quotations, never mind using them in context, separates Barton from the herd.

Have you ever seen the twitter feeds of PL footballers?
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I'd have to take your word for it, since I don't follow any.

But the impression I get here is some seem to think it's a marker for intelligence, which I don't.

I guess quoting others has never ever impressed me. I'd be more impressed at the quotation itself, its observations.
 
Talking Vulture said:
The only way that scouse cnut should get close to wearing a United shirt is if he's managed a swap at the end of a game v us.
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Agreed 100%, horrible shit of a person, if we can't get a top midfielder then just throw in the kids and hope they succeed.
 
No.

He's a good player but a trouble maker, we have a good team spirit, let's not spoil it.
 
To tweet, or not to tweet, that is the question. Just be sure to provide your answer in 140 characters or less.

According to what might loosely be described as 'research,' a scientist at Oxford University informed us this week that social networking phenomena such as Twitter and Facebook have created a generation of narcissistic wannabes.

This report declared the internet has spawned self-obsessed individuals cursed with a desperate need for validation, an inability to make eye contact during conversation and I think it went on to say something about a short attention span, but I'd drifted off by then.

I was too busy reading Joey Barton's tweets. The Newcastle United player has been barking 'Here I am, over here!' into cyberspace for the past few days, stirring up a fuss by promising to make an important announcement about his future.

Instead, he posted what must rank as the most entertaining, pretentious and inadvertently amusing collection of tweets of the year. They certainly seemed a suitable case for academic study, possibly by a team of people in white coats.

It started with a familiar gripe. Barton moaned about the club's lack of transfer investment, pointing the finger squarely at Newcastle owner Mike Ashley and chairman Derek Llambias.

When he was inevitably fined, sent to train alone in punishment and eventually told he could go on a free transfer, Barton accused the club of 'kicking a man when he is down', not the wisest choice of phrase bearing in mind the nasty Liverpool street assault that landed him in jail.

But he then proceeded to reel off quotes from George Washington, George Orwell, Aristotle, Seneca, Nietzsche and Virgil (not the one from Thunderbirds, either) on topics as diverse as freedom, trust, truth and justice.

These were followed by comments about American foreign policy ('supporting fascist regimes') and his attempt to defy what he believed were stereotypical views about footballers.

This Algonquin Round Table level of debate was somewhat undermined when it was interspersed with 'banter' involving Robbie Savage that reset the bar of debate back to 'limbo low' (Example - 'U r a nugget').

But the essential message Barton wanted to broadcast was that he was more than a moaning footballer. He was actually a deep thinker and ***********.
'Because you kick a ball makes u an idiot? Makes no sense. I agree some r but some also r not,' he said, which is of course true, if we ignore the textspeak.
I've often heard players claim they embrace Twitter because it helps fans know their 'real personality'. And this erudite collection of tweets did indeed provide an insight into Barton's private world.

It told us he knows how to use Google to find a quotations website and that he has too much time on his hands. That doesn't mean what he originally said wasn't justified. Newcastle's policy amounts to little more than muddling through and hoping somebody, somewhere comes in and buys the place for a decent price before the club plummets out of the Premier League again.
It also tells you everything you need to know about the unpopularity of Ashley that Barton can burnish his image by slating how the club operates from within.

But it does ask the question of whether he was the right man to say it. Barton has hardly been some long-suffering victim of injustice on Tyneside. Amazingly, there were people out there actually buying this 'working class hero' shtick.


One agent slimed in apologetic mitigation: 'So Joey has a little rant on Twitter now and again. If the club had been good to him then he wouldn't have anything to say.'

It was extraordinary nonsense, because the club has been very good to him. I don't recall Barton expressing unhappiness with Ashley when he continued to pay his £60,000-a-week wages while he was locked up in Strangeways. In fact, Newcastle gave Barton his shot at redemption.

He has repaid his employers by slagging them off, undermining his manager Alan Pardew and generally posturing as some fans' champion.

Barton is the thrush of Twitter; rash, irritating, yet easily dealt with. And however he dresses it up, with lines from Orwell like 'In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act', the bottom line is he was unprofessional.

Any employee trashing their boss in public would expect to receive a P45. Rather than look up authors and Roman philosophers online, Barton should have read his Premier League contract, where clause 3.25 says:

'The player agrees that he shall not: knowingly or recklessly do, write or say anything or omit to do anything which is likely to bring the club or the game into disrepute, cause the player or the club to be in breach of the Rules or cause damage to the club or its officers or employees or any match official.'
Newcastle have now sent out legal letters reminding the staff of this. Pardew even asked Sir Alex Ferguson for further advice on how to handle players' Twitter access.

That is like asking Kim Jong-il how he manages to keep North Korea's traffic problems to a minimum

Ferguson tends to have very few problems with trivia such as Twitter because the players are terrified of defying the manager. At Newcastle, nobody seems too concerned about that - and they haven't for years - which has been part of the club's problem.

Having originally been told he could clear out on a free, everyone soon calmed down a bit. Barton's agent said it was a 'wee bit suicidal' for the club to shove him out on a free (10 per cent of nothing is nothing) and all parties made noises of reconciliation as they remembered there might be money to be had.
Barton even hinted at a bridge-building exercise, referring to the great engineer of Clifton Suspension Bridge on Twitter. 'Does anyone have Isambard Kingdom Brunel's number?' he asked. Probably not, since he died in 1859.

It is precisely because Twitter is for self-obsessed narcissists that it is an unavoidable magnet for preening footballers and sports folk, motley media types seeking wider validation (see @DesKellyDM for more details) and celebrities desperate to cling on to any audience they can find.
This is why managers and sporting officialdom generally hate it. Bosses find the online chatter at best exasperating and downright mutinous at worst.
Twitter knocks down barriers and circumvents PR departments.

Rarely a week goes by without a fuss being stirred up by a cluster of unfiltered words broadcast online, with all the associated fines, bans and complaints about breaches of confidentiality or plain good taste.

But the worst pose of all from Barton was to make such a song and dance about his grievances and then pretend he was astonished to be the centre of attention.

'Has sport in this country, stooped so low as to quote, my nonsensical social media ramblings. They will probably quote this s**t! How sad???'
It suggests it was all just an exercise in 'me-me-me' rather than some grand campaign on behalf of the good people of Newcastle.

But his pseudo-intellectual posing wasn't over. He added on Friday: 'Loving the fact my NPR t-shirt is on the back of most red tops today. They probably don't even know its meaning #helmets'. Clearly the deep thinker act was beginning to wear thin. I'll merely point out NPR is the USA's National Public Radio service. Even if he wears the shirt, I doubt Barton listens to it very much, particularly as the Americans don't allow him into the country because of his violent past.

But so what? I doubt he's read Seneca, Aristotle or Nietzsche either. At least it's entertaining, I suppose. And here's one last quote that seems strangely appropriate right now. It is from Thomas L Masson, to save Mr Barton any more online searches: 'Be yourself is about the worst advice you can give some people.
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Daily Mail.


Perfect.
 
NPR is an excellent talk radio station. The best I've come across. Constantly thought-provoking and informative. Credit where it's due if Barton is a listener.

Oh and you don't need to live in America to listen to it. Podcasts, you see. The type of stuff someone who can google quotation websites might be familar with. Not this journalist, though, for some reason.
 
:lol: nail firmly on the head

And from the Mail? I feel dirty!

Barton accused the club of 'kicking a man when he is down', not the wisest choice of phrase bearing in mind the nasty Liverpool street assault that landed him in jail.
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:lol:
 
NJ1979 said:
I don't know - I'm not a particular fan of Barton, but it seems a bit rich that papers like The Mail sneer at footballers for supposedly being thick, and then sneer at them for trying to better themselves. Can't have it both ways.
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Agreed,

I doubt that reporter is particularly au fait with Seneca, Aristotle or Nietzsche either. Probably just flicked through a copy of Beyond Good and Evil like many people.

I'm willing to give Barton the benefit of the doubt. Everybody should be allowed to mature.

Plus I think he is a cracking player.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
NPR is an excellent radio station. The best I've come across.

Just throwing that out there.

Oh and you don't need to live in America to listen to it. Podcasts, you see. The type of stuff someone who can google quotation websites might be familar with. Not this journalist, though, for some reason.
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I didn't know that, either. And I can use Google.
 
I think the point is that posting quotes on twitter doesnt by default mean he's trying to 'better himself' and that its equally as likely to just be narcissistic posturing.
 
FortBoyard said:
Agreed,

I doubt that reporter is particularly au fait with Seneca, Aristotle or Nietzsche either. Probably just flicked through a copy of Beyond Good and Evil like many people.

I'm willing to give Barton the benefit of the doubt. Everybody should be allowed to mature.

Plus I think he is a cracking player.
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:lol:
 
FortBoyard said:
Agreed,

I doubt that reporter is particularly au fait with Seneca, Aristotle or Nietzsche either. Probably just flicked through a copy of Beyond Good and Evil like many people.

I'm willing to give Barton the benefit of the doubt. Everybody should be allowed to mature.
Plus I think he is a cracking player.
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Yeah, I think so too. I can understand people objecting to his signing on the grounds that they don't think he's good enough, but I don't think his past idiocy should necessarily be held against him. Plus it's hard to work up any moral indignation when the most respected player and biggest role model at our club has been repeatedly knobbing his little brother's wife.
 
Does this little Twatter episode suggest to anyone that he has "matured?"
 
Past indiscretions?


This is the guy causing so much trouble at his CURRENT club that they're not offering him a new contract and willing to let him leave for free just to get him out of there.
 
Eyepopper said:
Past indiscretions?


This is the guy causing so much trouble at his CURRENT club that they're not offering him a new contract and willing to let him leave for free just to get him out of there.
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If we had Ashley in charge and acting like a clueless dick, wouldn't you want our players to speak up as well?

I'm sounding like a fecking Barton fanboy here, I realise, but I do think he's being a little hard done by.
 
Maybe, as long as the player doing it didn't have a history of causing trouble which has followed him his entire career at every club he's played for.

Or maybe if the club hadn't stood by the player and generally done right by him.
 
Dont want him anywhere near this club in truth..

The irony of Barton accusing someone of 'kicking a man when he's down'... fecking hilarious.
 
Isn't Eyepopper the one who goes on and on about always being in fights and being so good at fighting etc every time it comes up?

Anyways I like the fact that that Barton uses quotes, he's at least trying to be knowledgeable, unlike most footballers.
 
You should keep asking for people to be banned and eventually it will be you who gets banned, then you'll have feck all to do with your life..... Except watch old videos of Raul and Cantona and .......
 
Come on, guys, a Barton thread is no place for hostility.
 
:D If you were me you'd be crying for a ban now. Anyways everyone knows you're bent as a roundabout.
 
United87 said:
Isn't Eyepopper the one who goes on and on about always being in fights and being so good at fighting etc every time it comes up?

Anyways I like the fact that that Barton uses quotes, he's at least trying to be knowledgeable, unlike most footballers.
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Not really, i got into lots of fights when I was a kid but like most people (and not like our Joey) I realised at about 17 that it wasn't an acceptable way to behave and stopped it.

I also didnt exclusively pick on people who were either far younger or far weaker than me.

I think the suspiscipn is that he's trying to appear knowledgeable rather than actually be knowledgeable
 
Eyepopper said:
I think the suspiscipn is that he's trying to appear knowledgeable rather than actually be knowledgeable
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"The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds."

John F. Kennedy
 
Siorac said:
"Civilized society is perpetually menaced with disintegration through this primary hostility of men towards one another."
Sigmund Freud
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"Let off some steam, Bennett."

- John Matrix.
 
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