JINXED BY JOEY
Barton’s big talk set Rangers up for Old Firm fall, insists Brown
SCOTT BROWN last night accused Joey Barton of condemning his Rangers team-mates to a Celtic onslaught by mouthing off in public before setting foot in Glasgow.
Upon agreeing a two-year deal with Mark Warburton’s side this summer, the ex-Burnley midfielder predicted he would be the best player in Scotland by a distance.
But the 34-year-old’s contribution to the Ibrox cause was negligible from the off, with his display in the 5-1 Premiership mauling by Celtic last month roundly pilloried.
A subsequent training-ground bust-up with Andy Halliday and Warburton proved to be the catalyst for an ongoing club suspension, with the terms of the player’s severance package now the only barrier to a humiliating early exit from Ibrox.
And Brown, who Barton previously claimed was not in his league, believes the Englishman’s omission from the Rangers side has improved the outfit he will face at Hampden in the Betfred League Cup semi-final on Sunday.
‘For me, he put his team-mates under a lot of pressure while we kept focused, kept on the straight and narrow and we just worried about our game, no one else’s,’ said Brown. ‘He tried
to wind the whole game up and for it to be about him but, yet again, you come into these games and top-quality players in the past have struggled. ‘It’s always going to be hard for anyone if they are not going to do the work. ‘I just did my talking on the park rather than in the media.’ Rangers have won backto-back league games against Partick Thistle and Inverness Caley Thistle and approach this weekend’s semi-final in better form than before their ill-fated trip to Celtic Park. Asked if he felt Rangers were now a better team without Barton, Brown replied: ‘Yeah — they have started to get a few results and get a steady team and that’s better for them. But we’re improving and getting stronger and fitter, too.’ Barton, who has also been cited by the SFA on allegations of betting on football matches, has plainly played his last game for the Ibrox club. Brown, for one, would have relished the chance to go head-to-head with him again on Sunday. ‘It would have been good fun, aye,’ he said. ‘After the last performance, it’s quite amusing.’