Joey Barton and Noam Chomsky: the dream team? QPR's midfielder claims to have found a hero in Noam Chomsky. The refs will have to watch out for manufactured dissent Man, occasional superman and QPR midfielder Joey Barton was previously best known as an adherent of the Nietzschean variant on the Warnock school of route one: "My idea of paradise is a straight line to goal", as Friedrich put it (in a book called Twilight of the Idols, a title that followers of Barton's current club must hope won't sum up a late season descent into the relegation zone). Perhaps sensing a post-Christmas loss of form, Barton yesterday indulged in some pre-window intellectual transfer activity. Having already collected more than his fair share of bookings for dissent, he has dropped Nietzsche's stress on the physical attributes of the game as a source of power. Yet he might find himself in even more trouble with officialdom now he appears to be modelling his game on a writer who has written the book on dissent. "Think I've found a man to respect and admire this morning, step forward Prof Noam Chomsky," tweeted Barton. One Noam Chomsky, there's only one Noam Chomsky, as the rulers of evil empires around the world no doubt are heartily glad of. Chomsky will offer Barton a new way to extend his role in the middle of the park. The Chomsky philosophy, "Our goals we will pursue guided by a vision", might see Barton providing inspirational half-time team talks, usurping the gaffer with a revolt to expose how consent has been manufactured via the iniquities of the Loftus Road hierarchy. Putting in its place a match-winning strategy built from below. A unipolar formation, more commonly known as playing with the lone striker up front, will no longer do. A Chomskyite return to 4-4-2 would favour a more equitable distribution of the ball, or at least until the other lot invades QPR's half. But whose half is it anyway? Barton now finds himself questioning whether possession isn't just another means of exploitation. Own goals beckon in a half-hearted attempt to even up the score. Minding his language, however, Barton's Chomskyite football could yet find the means of survival by exposing the weaknesses in the power formations that threaten to defeat his team. Never keen to profit from others' misfortune, Barton could subvert the back four of his opponents with runs down the left, never drifting towards the centre, exposing the frailties of the right sided nature of those his team find themselves up against. But don't now expect Barton to add to his solitary England cap in the near future. If the call should come from Fabio, Barton's response is likely to be swift and to the point. "Training in national jingoism", is how Chomsky dubbed international sport. It's a retort that is unlikely to spur Capello to any further efforts to persuade Barton to return to the England fold. Chomskyite football will sometimes be anarchic, with plenty of cross-field passing to favour horizontal formations of power in the team, usurping the barked commands of Warnockism from the technical area. Sometimes direct, the action on the pitch will seek to occupy the opposition's six-yard box. But to reassure worried QPR fans, the goal remains not just survival, but hegemony too. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/16/joey-barton-noam-chomsky
QPR midfielder Joey Barton tells Football Focus about his love of British band The Smiths, saying one of his biggest regrets is never seeing them live. He also explains why his favourite song is 'Still Ill' and how 'Meat is Murder' made him and his uncle become vegetarians - although the Liverpudlian admits he only lasted for one week without meat. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/16227495.stm
One of my friends over here is a big fan of Chomsky and claims to like football as well - I'll have to see if I can develop another QPR supporter in Ontario
barton still struggles with the beano he thought 2000ad and judge dread was a prequel to the movie 2001 a space oddysey
I like where Barton goes off field with his honest blunders after all he is young , and is changing his outlook for the right reasons good luck to him But I would love to see the captain of the football team I support focus on what we pay him for ... This seems at times very much like the Joey Barton show with QPR as a third tier sideshow ... Who benefits? It's not QPR primarily and I sense massive damage predicted by many to have taken place . We are in the big time and have attracted just a name IMO and our football at times is secondary
I have that feeling to DT but I think he may be turning the corner, nobody said he was going to be easy. However it will be interesting to see how JB's career at QPR pans out and where exactly is he hoping it to take him. Hmmmmmmm
