A Review
of joeybarton.com: Joey’s response to trolling
Monday 23rd July 2012 will be
remembered for a variety of reasons. The orange blob in the sky decided to show
its face to throw the UK summer
into full swing at long last. The nation basked in the glory of Bradley Wiggins
super human Tour De France triumph. The crescendo of Olympic hype reached
almost unbearable levels with a specially aired live episode of Eastenders in
which the perennial underdog Billy (us Brits love em) finally got his day in the
sun (both literally and figuratively).
Big, big
moments in the day’s news.
But all
pale in significance to the announcement that Twitter aficionado Joseph Anthony
Barton made a new home for himself (and his ego feeding ramblings) at
joeybarton.com.
“Depending
who you listen to… I’m a footballer, ex con, ranting anti-celebrity, “footballs
philosopher King”, Loving Dad and violent thug all rolled into one”
Our dear
friend Joseph states how he wishes to air his views on things that matter most
to him and gives us the opportunity to respond. TROLLERS BEWARE. Joseph has
expressly requested that the “4 letter expletive” crew remain on Twitter.
The
flow of egotistical narcissism adorns each page. Click on the ‘About’ section
and one is confronted with the statement,
“My
reputation will precede me until the day I die. And for some that can’t come
soon enough”
Glance
at the ‘In the media’ section and you are confronted with Joeys’ tongue in
cheek witticism,
“Whatever
I do I seem to make the headlines, don’t I?”
But
one inescapable fact exists that may disappoint. Joey Barton has a brain and he
likes to tell us about how he puts it to good use. To the irritation of some
and to the glee of others, Barton’s philosophical twitter splurges are, whilst incessant,
genuine and brutally honest. The creation of a website, including ‘Have your say’ and ‘Blog’ sections, is one
way in which Barton has attempted to harness his undeniable ‘celebrity’ to
accomplish some good,
“Here’s a library of topics that matter to
me. I want to create healthy debate, hear your ideas and see what everyone's
feeling. You never know, together we might just make something happen”
His debut offerings
include “The Rise and Rise of
the Monosyllabic Celebrity…” found in his culture section and he also comments
on the merits of a Royal Family in his politics section.
Whether the website is a PR stunt to increase his profile or is in fact a product of a genuine ambition to facilitate open debate is open to interpretation; careful perusing of the sites offerings will help answer this over the coming football season.
Barton
is probably hoping that Nietzsche foresaw his rollercoaster football career
when he stated,
“Anyone who has
declared someone else to be an idiot, a bad apple, is annoyed when it turns out
in the end that he isn’t”
An
idiot on the field. A resounding yes. A bad apple. Yes. But will his new
website offerings change our opinion of him? One can hope. Although...
“Hope
in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man”
-Nietzche
No
changes on the Barton front then.
Barton
In the News (again)
Self
aware, self important and self promoting, it seems the wheels are refusing to
fall off the Barton-bus. Hot on the heels of his website announcement came
reaction to the news that Barton plans to train with Fleetwood Town FC. Whilst
only there to regain his fitness whilst serving a 12 match ban resulting from
the end of season debacle, Barton has fallen out of favour at QPR. Stripped of
the captaincy, fined and banned from their pre season tour, it seems that
Barton’s time at QPR may be close to an end, with rumours circulating of
interest from Blackburn and Sheffield
Wednesday.
But
one must question the logic of a football manager who would take a punt on
Barton given his almost comical track record. Much has been made of his
criminal past and violent tendencies. Assaults on team mates and members of the
public have become a regular occurrence. On field spats with opposition and
officials have often lead to games descending into farce, the most recent case
study being the conclusion to the Premier League season where Joey demonstrated
to the world he is genuinely a despicable footballer.
One must
also question the motives of Micky Mellon, Fleetwood Town’s
manager, in permitting the Barton circus to train with his players, regardless
of the press attention it brought to the League 2 club.
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