Any club's fanbase is a broad church. They are, after all, a mixture of human beings with different levels of intelligence, likes, dislikes, perceptions - even perversions. There have been many who have slated SWP over recent weeks because of his poor performances, yet he has not been booed as far as I can remember. The difference with Barton is that He has been very vocal (if that is what you call it) on twitter. He was seen by many, rightly or wrongly, as part of the reason for the demise of "Uncle Neil" Warnock and annoyed people with the comments he made about NW just after he had been sacked. He did not engratiated himself to the Adel fans because of reports of a behind the scenes bust up early on and a couple of obvious spats on the pitch. He has been made captain and yet does not seem to perform those duties on the pitch. He was sent off for something really stupid and was banned from games that we could really have used him in. His form has been very poor of late. I could list more. All through this there has been the tweeting of stupid comments. He alone has tipped the vocal minority over the edge. They see a man who is paid more that 99.9% of the fans could ever dream of. Then they read (or hear about) the rubbish on twitter and the "let's all pull together" tweets and then have to watch poor performances by the man himself. They ask themselves "Is this bloke playing for the team or is he just turning up for the fat pay cheque?" It gets too much for the fans with QPR blue and white hooped blood in their veins to bear and some vent their feelings accordingly and in the moment others join in. People's perceptions of Barton are not helped by his past, but strangely that seems to have been largely forgotten about and is only brought up as a stick to beat him with. It is all very well for Derry to say fans should not boo the man, but Barton is not doing anything to help himself. The character he has created for himself, together with his performances, does not sit well with many fans. It is also all very well to say that the players are hurting too when things don't go right ... but they are paid whatever the result, whereas the fans have to pay - whatever the performance or result. In the same way that Barton can tweet/say what he likes about who he likes, the fans should be able to do the same. If for some of them that means booing (for the reasons stated above) then so be it. It is not good, it is not clever, it is not helpful .... but neither are Barton's tweets or his attitude at times on the pitch. Barton is the one giving these "fans" the ammunition and nobody should be surprised if they use it against him.
You won't get a professional footballer going onto the record regarding form of another professional. The unique thing here is the public profile that Joey Barton pushes out there ... its there to be shot down. Opposition teams will boo him as they will Tarrabt and players are conditioned to handle crowd reaction. The difference here is his profile via twitter v his actual performances which have been very poor. IMO he hasn't the talent nor do i think he ever has had as he is remembered so far in his career for situations which i don't see as football. I sincerely hope this gives me the time to think as I doubt if this has happened to him before from his home fans. His profile has been about himself and maybe if he had come out and quoted that he was now QPR and he now had blue and white blood great .... he didn't and in fact its still black and white and the end of his knob is sky blue. Now step up JB and get onside with the pride of QPR
I have seen that Swords, and its good news! But there are others who reckon they pay their money so its ok to boo. I understand that view. but it's very shortsighted because its not taking into account the effect on the team we are are supporting.
So thousand of loyal QPR fans didn't boo him. The majority in fact. Glad you acknowledge that. If they were loyal, they wouldn't boo their own player.
Whatever you think of Barton, and however much some of the team may dislike him, the booing will have a negative effect on team morale if it continues. Simply because the players will start to think " it could be me they have a go at next week". Thankfully the high of the win should negate this now, but the fact that the media is beginning to make a bigger story out of this than a fantastic win, leading to MH, Shaun and so on having to defend him is very depressing. Just when we need 100% focus on the task at hand. You pay your money and are entitled to boo your own players if you want - not my definition of a good evening/ afternoon at the match - but the consequences may be different to those intended.
Good point. Derry is in the twilight of his career. He doesn't have to suck up to anyone and so is speaking honestly. As far as he knows he might be lucky to get a few games here or there next season if we stay up so there is no need for him to be brown-nosing/'towing the party line'. He is speaking honestly, and he makes perfect sense. We need solidarity right now, cos although we beat Liverpool, and that was fantastic, we are still down near the bottom and still very much in the **** with tougher games than Liverpool to come. We need all the encouragement/help we can give to the team to pull them through whether you like some of them or not. Now is not the time to be in-fighting. Soildarity will pull us through!!! cheer on the lads!!!
If you want to hurt Joey Barton, booing him is not the answer. Look at the life he's had, he thrives on adversity. If you want to hurt the team, and put in further jeopardy our slim - yes, slim - chance of survival, carry on booing him. I'm sure you'll get your result. It may feel pleasurable and tension-releasing at the time, but it wrecks morale and takes the players focus off winning, it's as simple as that. I've seen it mentioned a couple if times that the booing 'helped' MH in his decision to substitute Barton; that's a dangerous notion if widespread. Let's boo Kenny, maybe, if he has a couple of bad games and who knows maybe it might 'help' MH to bring back Cerny. We need to reserve any anger we may justifiably feel towards Barton until the season is over. Then boo, throw tomatoes, cabbages even rotten fruit at him, but until the struggle is over think of the overall good of the team.
Yeh, agree with you SB, Finglas, Carlos, and Cur! Has Barton been booed at training as well now - understood this from another thread?
Not worth it if we are going down hung the bastard out to dry. No one can predict anything. I hope it sticks in his soul because if he doesn't react then expect a lot more booing and if we are relegated then I predict a riot
[SUB][/SUB] This Better happier and more successful team the moment he was hounded off the pitch. No more starts please. If it took booing to make that happen then it was a necessary evil. Good luck to those who can watch something they love go down the drain and be proud they kept quiet until it's too late.
