Lively Barton can mix it where it matters
SCOTTISH football is hardly noted for players with no-holds-barred opinions on the grave perils of Brexit. Forgive those of us in the media trade who might be relishing the prospect of a Joey Barton move to Rangers, then. Not for nothing was he dubbed ‘football’s philosopher king’. The man is a headline-making machine. With 3.2million followers on Twitter, Barton tends to say what he likes and likes what he says. There are no taboos. No subjects are out of bounds. Lewis Hamilton winning Sports Personality of the Year? ‘A bad day in our history’. Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip? ‘Innocent children being slaughtered’. UKIP? ‘The best of four ugly girls’. Boris Johnson? ‘If he says go left, I’d go right. The man is a prized **** ’. There are obvious concerns over how this might play out in a Glasgow setting. Up here, every utterance by a Rangers or Celtic player is picked over and dissected, and supporters like nothing better than a ride on the offended bus. However contrived. Mark Warburton knows all this. And he knows all about the assaults, the negative headlines and the lively political views. Outweighing all of that is the fact that, even at 33, Barton can mix it where it matters most. On a football pitch.