Barton tweets ....

I am so fed up of this utter ****er it is getting way beyond anything I have seen from a QPR player that I can remember and it is undefensible, for those who want to give him the benefit of the doubt or look blindly in the hope all will become good I am sorry to say you are misguided.

Compare for example Scott Parker captaincy at West Ham last year to "our Joey" there is simply no comparison as Parker is a real leader and a real man! I can put up with the odd poor performance but this twat has zero quality both on and off the field and to date has NOT put in ONE captains performance. Can any of you honestly put him in the same league as Mike Keen, Terry Venables, Gerry Francis, Alan McDonald, Glen Roeder, Terry Fenwick, Ray Wilkins, Martin Rowlands, just some of our Captains over the years. When I look at that list and "our Joey" is not worthy to lace up their boots, however he probably thinks he is better than all of them!!!

As for the distance he covers all well and good but reminds me of those old Italian military jokes where there generals were shot in the back suposedly on the attack, I have seen him too many times running back trying to make up for a mistake then stop half because he feels like it's not worth the trouble, he probably takes the corners so he can rack up a few more metres, I would rather he played like Butch Wilkins he didn't cover a lot of ground but also never gave the ball away.

Having said that it looks like we are in a catch 22 situation and I feel our only hope is that player be it in the 25 squad or junior player comes through and is a relevation playing in his position and keeps him out of the side and if that sounds far fetched the alternative is to wait for him to grow some balls and man up, HOW LIKELY IS THAT!!

 

I think the problem here is perspective and context.

Back in August, I was checking his every twitter tweat, hoping that he would sign for us. A sign of the pedigree of player that we were interested in. Delighted when he signed and loved the 3-0 'coffee bean salute' to the Wolves fans.

Fast forward four months and with Faurlin out, the replay with MK Dons seemed to have only one silver lining in that it absorbed another game of his suspension and that he would return to steady the ship and provide craft, guile and steel to a rudderless midfield.

Now we find ourselves a further two months on and with a run of poor results, people are rounding on him and calling for his head.

So, as I mentioned at the start of my post, we need to retain a sense of perspective and whilst his on-line ramblings might irk many of us, we need to separate these from his performances and look at how he plays in context (not judge some pseudo-intellectual one-liner seeking some cultural identity or critical acclaim).

I wasn't there on Saturday so I cannot judge. But putting the lambasting of Taraabt to one side (who himself incidentally was coming in for a load of flack in the Autumn), the consensus by most who were there and have made their observations on this board, seems to suggest that he played well in parts.

I think it's universally accepted that he's never going to be the conventional caption. Bryan Robson - he is not! So let's stop kidding ourselves that he'll ever meet those parameters. He's got the arm-band for the remainder of the season (as Rafa would claim) - 'fact'.

My approach therefore would be to focus on - and aim to maximise - those positive aspects of his game. To limit his involvement as captain beyond match day and think of other ways of captaining the team through a surrogate (much like the Derry-Taraabt scenario last season).

Drop him by all means, but I was there at MK and my word of warning would be 'be careful what you wish for'.

 

Agree with Sku.

Joey has the personality of a leader but unfortunately for everyone including himself, lacks the character and skill set. No doubt he personifies the club and squad atm: all promise and too little performance.

Clear we need cohesion and increasingly concerned about the talk of factions emerging within the camp: if true it's Frenchies, Champs and Barton boys... not to mention the no-hopers mumbling round the boundaries. Outrageous! Mark Hughes' reputation and career rests on sorting that lot into a united force - and pdq as they used to say.

Interesting management challenge that. It'd be an intriguing study if only the future of our club wasn't at stake.

 

You got me thinking there Nines - and lo and behold, thoughts became a new thread. Panic off - see Humour the Rumour!

 

Don't worry about giving 100% just pass the feckin ball to a man wearing a blue and white hooped shirt