Barton speaks sense
Non wine related: What is it about Manchester City that makes everyone associated with this football club speak sense? First we have the manager, Stuart Pearce, admitting on TV that the referee was right to send one of his players off for diving (see e.g. here), and now Joey Barton - perhaps soon to be an England Player - rants, quite rightly, about the profusion of autobiographies being published by footballers in their early 20s here. It's a breath of fresh air. I quote from the Guardian piece:
The midfielder recently aired his views about players with new autobiographies out. "England did nothing in the World Cup, so why were they bringing books out?" he asked, before paraphrasing the contents: "We got beat in the quarter-finals. I played like shit. Here's my book." People might pray for his call-up, if only to see how he mingled with authors such as Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand.
posted by Jamie @ 1:08 PM
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5 Comments:
and at least he has been playing like a demon to back up any views he airs!!
Loving Man United title chase and hating the fact that the 'one' henry is having to sit out the rest of the year.
the gunners will be a force next year.
I think you are right - Arsenal have the potential - just need a year for the youngsters to learn their trade. UTD are doing well this season and I won't be upset if they win, because it will be good for the premiership. But I can't help feeling that it's as much Chelsea losing the title at the moment as it is UTD winning it. I don't understand why Jose plays with four central midfielders.
Yip this year see's Arsenal gelling and finding the right combinations etc - and bleeding young Walcott. The next two years will see Arsenal rise to the top again.
I Cisse made a return to football on the weekend with Marseilles. I personally dont like UTD but in terms of the good of the premiership their winning will do wonders and perhaps sir alex will finally kick the bucket!!
Nice to see pompey and reading doing so well.
nothing like sitting with a bottle of wine watching football!!
Barton's full comments are reported here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3164-2494826,00.html
"A book?” he cries. “I’d never write a book unless I’d done something. I’ve achieved nothing in this game. Nothing. Maybe in time, if I achieve everything I want and I win trophies, I’ll write a book. But what I have done in my career? ‘And there was this one season we finished eighth at Manchester City . . .’ You know what I mean?”
“I can’t get my head round that,” the 24-year-old says. “England did nothing in that World Cup, so why were they bringing books out? ‘We got beat in the quarter-finals. I played like s***. Here’s my book.’ Who wants to read that? I don’t. If I’m buying a book, I’ll buy a book about someone who’s won something, not a book someone’s written for the sake of it because their agent’s telling them they can cash in on the English public on the back of the World Cup. I know football is a well-oiled PR machine these days, but that’s just bulls***. I know these players and I bet some of them didn’t even want to do books.
“I watched the World Cup and that wasn’t a team for me. You compare it to the England team that won the rugby World Cup. I might be a million miles off the mark, but it seemed to be a team of individuals playing for themselves and not wanting to do the nasty things involved in being a team. OK, some were prepared to do that, but there were too many people pulling in different directions.”
Do you think Pompey's Mendes dived in that "tackle" by City's Thatcher earlier in the season?
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