We all know his name by now – even the non football fans are starting to recognise his name after his comments since his sacking from Bristol Rovers from League 1 in England.
Joey Barton, who played for Manchester City and Newcastle United in his 14 year pro career, has really wowed football fans of his sexist comments which seem to be aimed mostly at ex pro England ladies players.
With women’s football really taking hold on TV and locally at small clubs trying to make an experience for girls and build a special place for them to express themselves and keep healthy whilst playing sport and making friends, the growth is very positive and hopefully some of the youth teams may see talents play for top UK teams in the future or a lucky few go abroad and play for some incredible teams.
The hype of the sport in the woman’s game is getting there and we do need to do more to promote play with youth and player retention over their time as a young footballer, by growing their skills and their communication to go on to better things.
Ex England footballers Alex Scott (140 caps, 12 goals), Jill Scott (161 caps, 26 goals) and Fara Williams (172 caps, 40 goals) *source – www.englandfootball.com* are all fantastic players that have moved on to punditry and commentating on games for their country in both the female and the male game, have proved they know what they are talking about from how long they have played in football themselves.
Scott, won nine league titles and seven FA Cups in Britain alone during her time in senior football. She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to football. Alex Scott is truly a football force to be blessed with in England.
However Joey Barton has seemingly became outraged since his sacking in late October as the result of poor form in the league, which has arguably not put him in the best of moods in the last few months. His comments about the female ex players talking about the senior men’s game have not been welcomed by many of the female fans and football community. His comments about women where he compared Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward to serial killers Fred & Rose West was picked up via social network X (formerly Twitter). Barton also thinks that only female players that have played at a high standard with merit should be allowed to talk about the men’s game.
It’s thought that Barton may have made the comments to gain publicity, as he aims to gain an audience for a new podcast out later this month.
There are many ladies writing posts for websites and football magazines now and it can’t be a surprise anymore as the growth of female football in the country has not gone unnoticed – even by men!
Joey Barton is no stranger to mayhem, as his brother has a jail sentence for the murder of Anthony Walker. Clearly Barton still has a lot of anger issues, and really has to seek help to try and battle his demons.
Barton’s comments all come after Kevin Keegan said his piece about women not being allowed views on football, and this struck a point with him too for his concern about women commentating in the sport.