Has the Barton experiment failed?

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Has the Barton experiment failed?

After today’s breaking news that following an apparent altercation with Andy Halliday Joey Barton has been banned from Murray Park and will play no part in Rangers’ next two matches, a number of conclusions can be drawn directly;

1: The player has been a let down and it is no loss for Rangers’ squad to see him not part of the pool.

2: All fans who had doubts about the player were clearly correct.

3: Warburton’s judgement (or whoever directly wanted the player) has to be called into question in wanting the services of Barton in the first place.

Barton, while not the firecracker he once was, remains a fellow with a dodgy past, and one of the most unpopular footballers in the sport. While last season was a rare gem from him where he behaved himself and even received club awards and league accolades, when he was linked to Ibrox most fans thought it a joke as it flew in the face of every ounce of dignity associated with Rangers.

And his Twitter spats with future opponents plus his general nonsense once he arrived, while occasionally successfully playing to the galleries, wore increasingly thin as time moved on and his contributions on the pitch lacked substance.

The hard truth is the Barton experiment has failed – and Mark Warburton (Or Frank McParland?) has to take responsibility for pursuing his services with such bizarre enthusiasm.

Barton was never a good fit for this club – and the midfield has been completely imbalanced since he debuted.

Not only that, but his performances, if not completely catastrophic, have certainly not been of succour to his team mates and few fans have been even remotely impressed.

It is early in the season, but Rangers cannot afford passengers, including highly-paid prima-donnas who do not contribute what their salary would expect, and who have been one litmus paper short of an explosion.

That explosion happened today; naturally the finer details are as yet unknown, but with Barton has always gone trouble and controversy.

Wherever he went.

Only this time, his talking on the pitch has not compensated.

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57 COMMENTS

  1. We need to wait for full details before we can judge. He might be guilty of showing too much passion which isn't a bad thing. Also, he's having to cover for Krancjar and a leaky defence all while having no pre-season so bit early to judge.

    I'm worried Warbs hasn't learned what it means to manager Rangers. Some of his comments have given the impression that he doesn't agree that Rangers should be expected to win every game. He thinks a draw with Killie is ok and people should be more positive.

    I really like what he has brought to the club but I worry he is struggling with the "goldfish bowl" and he could do worse than take Sir Walter for a game of golf and get some advice, especially on dealing with media etc

    • Players fight all the time,it can even be productive.If he fought with Halliday why only Barton sent home?Its more likely Warbs has told him to leave out the Twatter pish and play the game and he's had a pop at him,possibly physically. Would he send him home over a heated exchange of words?We'll find out Joeys version on his up coming installment on aforementioned platform soon enough.Wee shout out to my friend Timalloy.The "suited bigot" is shaggin yir missus!And "the girls".

    • I am afraid this is Barton all over he was same at Newcastle must say he is passionate but a liability not quite sure if happiest was also at.newcastle

  2. Apparently a few misdemeanours culminating with an altercation with Halliday and coaching staff on Tuesday. Only came out today as he wasn't at training.
    Remember, prior to last season, Barton was a free agent for most of the summer. He wanted a Premier league team but no offers came. At the Burnley signing press conference he admitted to being disappointed at his lack of offers and subsequently set out to prove last season he wasn't "past it". He did so well because expectation was low, also because Burnley had the same team which just played Premier league football.
    Warburton/McParland were clearly awestruck about the chance of signing Joey (who knew he couldn't cut this season in the Prem)
    Warburton has underestimated the intensity of this league. He will get it right as he is an extremely talented coach. However, time is not a luxury afforded in Glasgow.

  3. Barton a few days ago on Twitter – "No excuses. Nowhere near good enough for our football club."
    Then today has a rammy with a proper Rangers man.
    Bringing in Barton is the equivalent of Brenda bringing in Balotelli to Liverpool. I just hope it doesn't end up the same way for our manager. I was against the signing of Barton from the first minute I heard about it (it also didn't fit in with one of Warburton's favourite soundbites – "We want players who bring value on AND OFF the pitch"), but the idea of him leading the midfield in a Rangers shirt grew on me. Lesson learned – should always go with my instincts. Today he's confirmed once again that he is no leader.
    I hope Halliday plays on Saturday.

  4. he,s on 20 grand a week gardening leave,,no other decent club would want him,,this is 3rd bust up since arrival,,1st game after hamilton,,,2nd win against dundee,,,you have to remember the manager was on his holidays when he appeared,,

  5. As Warburton says he brings Value to the squad ie sell him for a couple o Million at xams for nice wee profit be the best and only thing he will do for us he on a 3 year contact so we should easily get 2million 4 him maybe even three

    • Ffs we will be desperate to get him off the payroll…..which means that we might have to agreea pay off with him.
      King will gamble and sack him and keep his fingers crossed that he wins in court…..good old Dave.

      In King We Trust

  6. Not only Barton has been a failure, you can count the same half a dozen players that I can that are simply not even good enough to be in a very very poor Rangers team, never mind one on the up.

    We can ask until we are blue in the face who wanted these players in our dressing room, but with the non-transparent transparency model adopted by the club since we got booted off the AIM… you would be as well asking to see the balance sheets…. transparent and as clear as mud…. no one will answer and the masses will continue to jump over the cliffs like all good lemmeings

    GSTQ

    • Lots of sensible comment there mate.

      The financial position is dire, Murray is going round with a bucket looking for contributions, no one is biting as King is toxic.

      If we try to sack Barton I can see us in court fighting his claim that his contract should be paid up in full……which will empty the bank account, if there is anything still left!

    • The side has been unsettled since bartons arrival,is it the boys that are not good enough or doin it for team or is it joey s fault only warbs will no the answer to that bt he must act swiftly and decisively and stop experimenting'now

  7. Warburton needs to play haliday and holt a gain together after this, rossiter as dm behind them will be great. Rangers best performance last season was those too with ball supporting and I think rossiter is better than ball. Should give a better set up to our midfield to build an attack on

  8. Most definitely, I never wanted him,he has slowed the midfield down,he is finished,Jordan rossi ter is better,get short of him and get some 1 in on January, he got showed up on Saturday against celtic ,well the whole team did ,mark Warburton has to get short of him and show who boss is

  9. Barton realised that there was no way he could have coped with the EPL so when we were daft enough to offer him a contract with decent wages he saw what appeared to be an easy ride in a pish league he jumped at it

  10. Let's be honest. We all thought the bloke was a prick but hoped against hope it was a stroke of genius. Turns out it looks like the blokes a prick. Shame

  11. Couldn't agree more Stuart. Barton, Senderdross, Kiernan and Fodderingham need to go in January. Dump them into the U18's training squad. Play Crooks and Wilson centre of defence until we can sort it out and get Dodoo and Garner as an up front 2.

    • I'd want
      Gilks
      Hodson, crooks, Wilson, Wallace
      Rossiter
      Holt, haliday, Forster
      Windas, garner

      Be a solid team and no egos to go with it, As well as brining the average age down and putting some speed into the team. Only gilks is older so that he can organise the deffence Infront of him which I think is something foderingham can't do at all

    • Aye very good dumb and dumber. You've got it all figured out. Love how you both think Crooks is the answer without having seen him play a minute. Plus he played midfield last season and said in an interview he is a midfielder. Hodson for Tav, again, clueless. Tav was our most effective attacking player last season and you dump him for a guy who was at killie and has played a couple of cup games against lower league teams. Foderingham has hardly put a foot wrong. And you've left out our top scorer from last season….. clueless!!

    • Anon, we would rather play a guy who we haven't seen play, than play the current central defenders. That says more about our current defenders than it does about us. I must be 'dumbest', because I like the look of that back 4 too. I'd only, rather than play Forrester, have Krancjar playing where he's supposed to play, in behind the 2 two strikers. The rest of Stuart's team would be my choice too. Waghorn to be the first sub.

    • Changes for changes sake doesn't lead to better results. Celtic was our first loss. If our attacking players do their job we should win most games. I'm not saying our defence shouldn't do better, what I'm saying is if we play like the first half of last season it wouldn't matter conceding 1 goal as we should be scoring 2 or 3. The WHOLE team is not playing well at the moment. When we were playing excellent football last season, Wilson and Kiernan were the backbone. It's the midfield that needs sorted. Barton is finished. Krancjar should only be coming off the bench. Rossiter will be the man who makes the difference to our season..

  12. Don't believe for a minute Warburton wanted the ned, but he could not be disloyal and say so or everyone would have been on top of him. It was King, and its another big gamble of our money which looks lost. Barton has a two year contract worth £3M. Sorry to say it but don't see anything we can do. He's useless and nobody will take him off our hands.

  13. That which we are, we are …
    Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
    To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield!
    WA forever TP

  14. Cross Keys is exactly right when he says "our" money because King has not put one thin dime into the club. He's taken us all for a ride.

  15. Barton said it himself not good enough for our team no excuses. Once a knobend always a knobend. I thought when we signed him it was a mistake but willing to give anybody in a blue shirt the benefit of the doubt sadly he is proving to be the same dick he was before. Unfortunately he has given warbs an easy decision.I would like to have seen him dropped on Saturday and spend an extended period anywhere south of Govan

  16. If it can't be sorted out then send Barton to the development team and use Rossiter as the permanent dm. I hope Warburton will sort it out and bring the team back together again. I wonder if Barton had the blow out with another dud would there gave been such a reaction and if Barton had confronted Brown at the old firm game he would be a hero. Trust in Warburton.

  17. Barton's Ego crashed at Celtic park. He'll never be a player again. Mw needs to stop bleating about press negativity and concentrate puting Rangers on a long run of wins starting with the next game. The fans deserve nothing less. Holt, Rossiter on the right with MOH on the wing. Hodson at Right Fullback. Those four must start for me. Let's get some momentum and fight into this sorry performing excuse for a Rangers team.

  18. So Joey has put out a statement basically saying that he disagreed with the manager.
    WTF?
    Is this called "being a team"? I only wish we had Butcher, Souness and Hurlock in the dressing room…he wouldn't know what hit him.

    He bragged about being in a different league to that twat at Parkhead, and now his ego wants to show how he's in a different league to the manager. Out of fucking order, sunshine. You were SHITE last weekend…you're one of half a dozen players who should have the humility to keep your gob shut given your pathetic footballing displays since the start of the season.

  19. Until we know the full story we should give full support to joey, we don't know what was said or done at Murray park. Mw dealt with it accordingly. Let's give the manager and the big man the chance to sort it out. Id love joey to prove everyone wrong like he did last season and do exactly what he said he would do, win the spl player of the year. That would show brown a thing or two about being a good footballer. Doesn't anyone else agree he deserves a second chance, you don't become a bad footballer overnight. He played for euro giants Marseille ffs,he can't be bad can be? Its early doors let's support everyone who pulls on the Queens 11.

    • Warbs dealt with it…..are you kidding.

      Barton has been spouting off on social media for months, all talk no action as it turned out.

      The manager only took action when Barton verbally abused him in front of all the players, accusing him of having no idea what he was doing.

      Aye Warbs has disciplined him…….no kidding?

  20. Remember my friends, we are on the road home. We have slowed to a walk recently but the destiny of Rangers lies with the loyalty and irrefutable determination of the Rangers supporters. Recent history has shown that custodians and boards come and go. Rangers destiny lies ultimately with the financial clout of its fan base. The Easdales will testify to that!

    • How fecking gullible are you……at least the Easdales put their money where their mouth is, unlike the criminal crook who is leading us on a path to total destruction.
      We have no money, don't you get it.

      Murray out hustling anyone and everyone for contributions with zero success…..King is toxic, no honest businessmen will meet him never find loan him money.
      Gilligan and Park must be regretting ever getting mixed up with him……..no wonder we never here a peep from them.

      Transparency King, that's what you promised…….and what have we got……PR pap and disinformation.

      The Board have no idea where the working capital is coming from after Xmas to keep the lights on…………the shit is about to hit the fan big time and here we are talking about Barton who is a circus clown.

      His rambling apology followed by a tweet, later deleted, that his apology doesn't mean he was wrong!

      He's ripped the dressing room apart and made the manager look weak. Warbs has stood to the side and allowed Barton to wind up the opposition on social media then fail, badly, to back it up on the park.
      He's always been a Tim, now he's pissing on us from the inside on £30m per week…..that's £1.5 m per year…….our last audited accounts showed an annual turnover of £19m, his take alone is 8% of that.

      Who was praising the board for spending within our means? The wage bill is up by £5m, that means that we need to increase revenue by £13 m to break even, as the last posted losses were £8m.
      It's a feckin shambles and the board have run out of ideas.

      Time for Ashley to come on board, get rid of King and Murray and onwards and upwards.

      Without an immediate injection of serious cash we will forever be in the shadow of Celtic…..10 IAR is already a given. Their turnover this year will be approaching £80m………and they have Dembele on their books who is attracting attention from all over. Stones at 22 went for £50m as a defender, a scoring centre forward with pace, two footed and good in the air………………..the bidding will start at £25.

      Doomed I tell you, we are doomed, seriously.

      King and his board have no idea what they are doing, there is no short, medium or long term plan.

      Policy is being made on the hoof, the lack of the promised transparency is no surprise as King reverts to type.

      King out, Ashley in, it's the only way forward.

  21. Barton mouthpiece, Billy Big Baws, Scott Brown is a decent player, Barton's comments on him and Brenda should have been stopped by Warbs. it showed weakness and club indiscipline..

    Then again Warbs seems to have an opinion on everything these days and likes his name in the papers. Heads fekin down get on with winning games.

    Stay out the papers do your talking on the pitch.

  22. £28k a week basic ffs… Are we a CL team, a PL team how can we afford that for someone we will get nothing back on when he is mid thirties? Is Dave King his agent?

  23. Player or system problem? I am watching a 4:1:4:1 set up which is no longer controlling the ball or pressing hard enough to regain possession. One defensive midfield player covering for 2 attacking fullbacks will ultimately result in the CBs being put under pressure. Add to that the failure to penetrate beyond the 18 yard line. Play breaks down, resulting in over-committed players being out of position and an opportunity for punishing counter attacks. Perhaps only corners are the result, but that is good enough to score against our penalty box confusion. MW states control is vital: Man City and Barca have control – enough said! Can control be achieved against manic workrate and determination in SPFL. Players at this level are not technically gifted but they will scrap hard against Rangers. So is there an alternative system, or is it Plan A, 'we need to learn and come back stronger', then Plan A again, (more reteric) Plan A again???

    • You have not been watching 4-1-4-1 when watching Rangers.

      Before the Celtic game you were watching 2-2-4-2. Our two useless centre backs (whatever the combination) were "protected" by TWO defensive midfielders (Rossiter and Barton). MW, in his wisdom has decided that the CB's need protected through the middle while being totally exposed on the flanks by throwing the full backs forward at every opportunity.
      Against Celtic we went with what quickly turned into an insane 2-1-6-1. This left our useless CB's with ONE useless, slow, midfielder in front of them ans still exposed on the flanks.
      Needless to say we were soon playing with 10 men in and around our bow with ONE player left to struggle up front.

      As he Yanks sometimes say, "go figure".

  24. Barton, at most, should be on the bench. Halliday, at best, should be out the door. Nothing to do with this spat. Just a simple assessment based on form and ability.
    Barton is slow, however, he can tackle if played in the holding role. Even if he can be a bit reckless at times. He can be effective there if MW adopted better tactics and told his full backs to stay at home and tuck in a bit. At least up until we get two half decent centre backs.
    If played further forward, Barton can be a good forceful player who hits half decent passes into and around the box. Provided that he has some pacey players around him. Like Windass, or O'Halloran, or Forrester, or McKay. If Barton, who is slow, has to play further forward with other players who are slow, like Kranjcar, or Miller (even Waggy is looking suspect since his injury) then he will be completely ineffective.
    Barton's problem is, he is slow, and is being asked to play in a team with too many other slow players. Nothing can be done about the slow centre backs at present. However MW's selections in midfield have been appalling. You might get away with playing ONE slow player (if he has other good skills to compensate) if he has speed merchants all around him. Any more than ONE and you are asking for trouble.
    Barton has been useless, to date. Just how bad he has been, has been masked by having Jordan Rossiter playing beside him in a team that used TWO defensive midfielders to cover for our useless CB's.
    Much like the useless Andy Halliday had his shortcomings hidden when Dominic Ball was called into the side last season when players were just brushing Halliday aside and running away from him while Halliday floundered.
    Halliday can't tackle and hits too many loose passes (so is restricted to playing short square or backward passes). He couldn't open a can of sardines, let alone a cefence, when played further forward. He is slight of build but still runs like a cart horse. In short he is useless. Being a Rangers supporter is one thing. Being a Rangers player is something else entirely.
    If Barton and Halliday have been involved in a spat, I hope it was fisticuffs. That would be a wonderful opportunity to move them both out and save a few quid into the bargain.
    The prob

  25. Hi guys, long time been away far east. Just heard about this and it just shows that we know more about the game than our so called higher ups, not including Mr Warburton who had nothing to do with signing this animal on such ridiculous money. Think what we could have done with 30 grand a week spread over 2, 3, or 4 players. And what do we end up with? A crockashite like we all said it would be. I don't want to spell out what we should do with King in case this post gets deleted.

  26. heard from a decent source that barton was in face of halliday and when big D tried to split them up he roasted him for not building a defense.
    Howd you come back to training when youve told everyone they are a-holes. The board are going over the contract now looking for the ejector seat clause.
    I think he's a sellick supporter, looked like he was playing for them last week.

  27. I would punt Barton. Thought it was a gamble when we signed him but admit to getting caught up in it all. Agree with lot said on here. His signing was at odds with MW emphasis on value on and off field. Barton can never do that. Punt him and build the role around Rossiter. In terms of play, it is obvious how much pace has gone out the team and I put that down to Barton.

  28. If we can get Joey fit,then Andy looks like a kid but i think to get the best from Joey is make him the leader and tell him to shout loud on the pitch every one follow him then our Joey shines and makes them all play

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