EPL Talk » Joey Barton

Least Valuable Premier League XI

tyduffy — Sun, 31 May 2009 23:35:48 +0000

This is not the worst team in the Premier League. It is the least valuable. This team would incite the masses with talent, with name recognition and with expense. They would then fail pathetically. This team could be composed entirely of Newcastle players, but we thought we’d include a few others to keep things interesting.

Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal): Doubled his salary this season. Halved his work rate and effectiveness.

Michael Owen (Newcastle): No longer an elite player, no leadership value, paid like someone with both.

Damien Duff (Newcastle): Expensive, complacent and ineffectual, Duff is a perfect emblem for Newcastle’s season.

Joey Barton (Newcastle): He makes £60,000 per week. No description needed.

Deco (Chelsea): Barcelona – better when he left. Chelsea – better when he stopped playing.

David Bentley (Tottenham): Once tipped to start for England, can’t even start for Tottenham. Spurs won eight out of eleven league games he did not play.

Gareth Bale (Tottenham): Spurs still have not won a Premier League match he has appeared in.

Micah Richards (Manchester City): Has regressed rather than progressed, a testament to Capello’s insight.

Gary Neville (Manchester United): Waste of a squad position.

Andrea Dossena (Liverpool): One reason Rafa Benitez should have to work for his transfer funds.

Craig Gordon (Sunderland): Sunderland allowed 113 goals the past two seasons. Not all Gordon’s fault, but you would expect more impact, given his transfer fee.

Joey Barton’s Latest Red Card

Ethan Armstrong — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:00:53 +0000

When I saw Newcastle United’s lineup today before their 3-0 loss to Liverpool, I said aloud: Joey Barton’s going to get a red card. I only meant it to elicit a laugh from friends, but with Newcastle’s fate in the balance and Barton’s famous temper in mind, I had a vision of Barton heading for the showers a bit earlier than his co-workers.

Some 87 min of play later and Liverpool’s Xabi Alonso was digging the ball out of the corner. Though Alonso had his back to the goal area and his teammates and posed no immediate threat, Barton went to ground, slid behind the ball and took Alonso down hard using both feet. Referee Phil Dowd immediately drew out the red card.

Barton will miss Newcastle’s remaining matches and the club is expected to fine him for his behavior.

This incident is simply the latest in Barton’s history of violent outbursts which includes (but is not limited to): causing a brawl in a pre-season friendly with Doncaster; stubbing a cigar in a teammate’s eye; breaking the leg of a pedestrian while driving; an altercation with a 15-year-old Everton fan in a hotel in Bangkok; two-footed lunge on Bolton’s Abdoulaye Faye; suspected assault and criminal damage in an incident with a taxi driver; suspension by Manchester City for assaulting teammate Ousmane Dabo who ended up in the hospital; kicking Sunderland’s Dickson Etuhu in the groin during the Wear-Tyne derby: assaulting a man and a teen in Liverpool city centre after a night of heavy drinking.

The incident with Dabo was the end to Barton’s career with City. I was surprised when Newcastle United picked him up seemingly quickly. No matter his abilities, after attacking a teammate, Barton should seem more of a liability than a boon to any sensible manager.

The tackle on Etuhu soon followed and then the incident in Liverpool when a drunk Barton punched a man some 20 times in the head and then punched a 16-year-old boy, breaking some of his teeth

The consistency and persistence of Barton’s transgressions show he will never learn to control himself. The unnecessary, violent challenge on Alonso is typical Barton, and if any club is willing to bid for his services this summer (flailing Newcastle are expected to unload him) must know this behavior is an intrinsic part of what they are buying.

It’s hard to imagine who could be excited to take on Barton.

Perhaps one of the promoted sides will allow the value of Barton’s top flight experience and ability to outweigh the risks he brings. (The risks should provide a substantial drop in Newcastle’s asking price.) But the likes of Wolves or Birmingham or whoever sign him will have to start drafting their statement to the press regarding Barton’s next, inevitable, violent outburst.

How many more clubs will allow Barton to repeat this tiresome dance? Newcastle seemed a club too many. The man should be in jail, not on the pitch.

Although, if Vinnie Jones’s trajectory is any indication, Joey Barton may have a future in films.

Rafa’s Ranting Is Doing Liverpool No Favors

Johnathan Starling — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 05:19:32 +0000

The sooner Rafa Benitez keeps his mouth shut about how teams are playing against Liverpool, even in off handed ways, and focuses on getting your team back on the winning path; the better off you will be. The comments made after Liverpool’s 1-1 draw at the JJB against Wigan in my mind read like a manager who has lost grip with what is important…winning.

The comments, where he calls the game crazy, says his players were okay, and takes a back handed swipe at how his team played with this comment “We’ve been giving away too many points. This has happened in the last three games and it’s something I don’t like. “I know why but I cannot say anything…” tells me that Rafa doesn’t get it.

I notice a pattern here. Ever since Rafa’s swipe at Sir Alex Ferguson, nothing has been Rafa’s fault. Maybe it’s time for Rafa to look at himself in the mirror and realize maybe it’s what he’s doing with the squad that has Liverpool playing in this manner. With Chelsea coming up on Sunday, Rafa doesn’t have long to turn things around. It’s going to be very interesting to see how he deals with Scolari’s men, considering the chances they have created lately.

Other Stories
Gotta love the red tops. I don’t think Roque Santa Cruz is gonna want to leave one team struggling for relegation to head off to another (that would be to Tottenham).

These type of gentleman’s agreements better be dealt with quickly by FIFA. No wonder why Zenit St. Petersburg has been so smug about this whole Andrei Arshavin situation. It looks like if Arsenal want him, it’ll be fifteen million to secure him.

In a subject I talked about yesterday, West Brom are going to appeal Paul Robinson’s red card picked up against Manchester United. I hope the suspension is overturned.

The BBC wins the UK Premier League highlight rights. The only added bonus is MOTD will be available for UK Users on iPlayer on delay.

I don’t think anyone associated with Manchester City will be getting a Christmas card from Steve Bruce. Saying that Palacios was used as a pawn in the Craig Bellamy deal is a strong accusation.

Could Marco Storari be the next backup to Petr Cech at Chelsea?

As mentioned earlier on the site today, Michael Owen looks to be out for six weeks while Joey Barton looks to be out six weeks thanks to ankle injuries sustained against Manchester City. This on the say night where Joe Kinnear confirmed that Shay Given will more than likely leave the club in January.

Friday will be the day when FIFA will decide Nemanja Vidic’s fate from the red card he picked up at the World Club Cup.

Tony Adams wants three more players before the transfer window closes. It’ll be interesting to see if he can secure them. Meanwhile Sol Campbell is coming out and lamenting that talks haven’t started on a new contract for him.

Manchester City is pledging their full support behind Robinho.

Emile Heskey feels Aston Villa are top four worthy. We’ll find out soon enough.

Here is an interview I did for Football Corner.

And finally Vinnie Jones will be our next guest for the EPL Talk Podcast. Now I shouldn’t have to be doing this but I will. Please keep your questions reasonable or else don’t expect them to be asked on air.

Mike Pollitt Costs Wigan Three Points Against Liverpool

Johnathan Starling — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:21:56 +0000

You never commit too soon.

Mike Pollitt did just that towards the end of the first half of Wigan’s home tie with Liverpool and paid the price. While Mido equalize late in the match, this was a game where Wigan seriously had a chance at getting all three points.

Yes it’s harsh to blame one person with regards to points lost, but on a night where Liverpool were far from their best this was a golden opportunity to get all three points. The game wasn’t all that entertaining, Wigan had huge stretches where they were on the ball. However, they didn’t do a thing with it.

Let’s be honest about Liverpool as well, they weren’t all that convincing as well. The goal in the forty-first minute came completely out of the blue. Pollitt’s decision to commit so soon left Yossi Benayoun an empty net to shoot at. Benayoun to his credit though, had the tightest of angles after nearly running the ball out for a goal kick and did well to turn the ball in at the far post.

Liverpool though ended up shooting themselves in the foot and gave up their lead thanks to a ridiculous penalty that should see Lucas benched for the next match. Just giving Jason Koumas a right old kick in the penalty area has to go down as one of the candidates of dumb move of the season. Mido’s equalizer was deserved but it makes me wonder what would have happened had Pollitt not jumped the gun on Benayoun’s opener? Would Wigan have won it? They nearly did on their own merit at the end when Hugo Rodallega hit the wood work. I am just convinced that Wigan would have won it had Pollitt been wiser and stayed on his line.

Other Thoughts From Today’s Action
* Salamon Kalou’s two goals today were a welcomed sight as Chelsea beat Middlesbrough. However when you have 24 shots on goal, you should be scoring more than 2 goals. With all the time Boro spent in their own half, they should feel fortunate they only lost 2-0 and not by more.

* Fair play to Manchester City for beating Newcastle United at home. However the story to this one are the injuries to Michael Owen and Joey Barton. This is the last thing Joe Kinnear needs as they are only 2 points above the danger zone.

* Everton were robbed by Robin Van Persie’s injury time equalizer. However Arsenal have bigger problems on their hands as three of the top four got three points and there is a gap starting to widen between the Champions League spots. What ace does Wenger have up his sleeve to get his side back in the top four? I’m curious to find out what it is.

* How soon is it before we are talking about Hull City as relegation fodder? They look a side that right now are out of ideas. Phil Brown has a bigger job on his hands keeping this side safe than I think he will want to admit.

* Lucky for Sam Allardyce that Benni McCarthy made up for missing from the spot with grabbing a late equalizer. However, there’s still plenty of work to be done by both sides if they want to get out of the relegation mire.

* Numbers just for my own benefit. 1-4 are separated by just 3 points. The number of teams within three points of relegation, that number is 8.

Big weekend for…

Josh Allen — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:47:42 +0000

As we arrive at the quarter mark for the current Premier League season the standings are starting to take shape, although who would have ever thought we would see Tottenham rock bottom or Hull City in the Champions League places. As such it is another big weekend of fixtures coming up and about time players started to perform. Here we will have a quick look at those who might be expected to up their game.

Robbie Keane – With Fernando Torres set to miss this weekend top of the table clash against Chelsea a lot will be riding on the former Spurs striker. Having scored in midweek against Atletico Madrid Keane finally looks to be settling down at Anfield and perhaps the game at Stamford Bridge may be the place where the Irish forward can stake a claim to the second strikers position alongside Torres. Keane has yet to score for Liverpool in the Premier League and Chelsea will be a difficult place to break his duck. However Keane has a decent recent record against the Blues, having scored in two of their last five meetings. The 28-year-olds goalscoring odds maybe be worth a look this weekend.

Joey Barton – With Newcastle short of players jailbird Joey maybe in with a shout of getting his first start against Sunderland since completing his six match suspension. Barton failed to make friends (surprisingly) in last seasons Tyne-Wear derby when he was guilty of a horrific challenge on Dickson Etuhu but managed to escape any punishment. The former Man City midfielder has this week said he would like to become a role model and knows he has done wrong with this Saturday’s match giving him the perfect opportunity to show he has mended his ways.

Jo – Since arriving for a then club record fee of £18m the Brazilian striker has failed to set Eastlands alight with some of the samba magic we might have been expecting. Having missed a number of games through injury at the start of the season Jo has begun to get a decent run in the City side but despite a goal against Portsmouth more has been expected of the 22-year-old. With the visit of Stoke this weekend Jo might be expected to shine against a mediocre defence and try to step out of the shadow cast by a certain other record breaking Brazilian. However Jo is low on confidence and I don’t expect him to boost Manchester City’s Premier League odds any time soon.

Tottenham – Having said I would only single out players this whole page could have been filled with under performing Spurs players. Another week, another bout of misery for Tottenham fans as they were first humbled by Stoke before suffering defeat to Udinese. Heurelho Gomes hasn’t been the goalkeeper many were expecting and his display in the Uefa Cup won’t have inspired any confidence. The likes of Johnathan Woodgate and Michael Dawson have hardly held things together at the back to be fair whilst Luka Modric and David Bentley are still finding their feet at White Hart Lane. Finally we come to major problem, the strikers, Darren Bent seems low on confidence whilst Roman Pavlyuchenko is still adjusting to the Premier League. With a shocking record of five Premier league goals scored in nine games it is hard to see how Tottenham are going to turn it around. This Sunday presents a glorious opportunity to boost confidence at the club before the north London derby with Arsenal when they face Bolton at home. The Trotters themselves are struggling for goals and were fairly poor last time out against Blackburn. Juande Ramos must get his tactics right this weekend because Spurs fans patience is wearing thin and they will expect a result on Sunday.