They were bought in on massive wages to be our best players, if the best you can do is "they are as good as Derry and Mackie" then its an utter, utter failure. You live in a council house, you then spend 500k on a new house and then find out its no better than the council house. Are you going to be happy with that or would you expect more from your 500k?
Your comparison of bricks and mortar with a complex human being with his own traits and abilities required to dovetail with a series of other such individuals and perform according to a plan designed by their manager is quite simply ridiculous. It is far too simplistic and juvenile. The wages a player receives is down to how good their agent is and how desperate the club is to sign them, not a cast iron indicator of how good they are. If your boss gave you as pay rise would you suddenly be better at your job? I don’t think anyone is saying that Barton and Wright Phillips have been anything other than desperately disappointing, but they were both damaged goods and always a gamble, but my question was “would we really have been better placed without them?”.
He was actually very good in the game before Bolton. I still think he has something to add. Barton, on the other hand, costs us in two ways: he's made some key mistakes, leading to opposition goals, and he seems to have a negative effect on the team. If Faurlin had never been injured and we had played him in every game since instead of Barton, I am certain that we'd be in a better position.
Is there a couple of internationals in that group of 4 who have something to prove to get back in the selectors eye. It must be DiaKite looking for a British passport ans Derry still hoping!? Makes me cringe
Actually, in the case of Barton, yes. He is by far our weakest link. A truly shocking performance yesterday. Gave up the ball again and again and never looked likely to make a telling tackle. It is hard for me to see how people continue to defend him. You are trying too hard to like a bad boy. Please stop.
On balance I agree with Roller, Barton and SWP are not culpable for our predicament. For me it's about our failure to produce a settled squad and first team in particular. It all started in the crucial close season period with the Goons killing the winning mentality we'd achieved, with frostiness and a refusal to invest in the future. Very damaging. Then, as fortune would have it, we draw a game order that sees us playing the weaker sides before the big hitters in each half of the season. Great that we land ambitious owners with money to spend but three different teams and two completely different management styles to address such a peculiar challenge, has left us unsettled and sadly wanting. An effective strike force might have boosted our hopes and team psychology sufficiently enough to plug the transitional changes... wasn't to be, was it? Elsewhere, individual performances alone are less significant. Personally, I've seen better and worse from most players this season - not just from Barton and SWP: Kenny, Young, Taiwo, Derry, Buzsaky, Taarabt, Mackie, Zamora and others have all been rightly criticised at various stages. Added to this, suspensions for Barton, Cisse and Diakite have each taken their toll on stability at vital points in our development. Without team harmony and a couple of good wins to kick start our season, we're obviously going nowhere good. Whilst I can't blame Hughes or anyone else for our current predicament, it is down to him to stablise us around a winning habit now. I can see clear indications that that's happening... it's just a shame we've had to try to gel against more settled sides as desperate as we are to avoid the (other) 'R' word. Victims of circumstance, us tbh - nothing more. We've been the better team in a few matches lately but without the necessary cutting edge, have failed to chisel out the desired results. In such dire circumstances, players tend to try too hard to make the difference and reverse our fortunes... Imo, if Barton and SWP are guilty of anything, it's this. Fingers crossed the Cisse / Zamora thing clicks soon. If and when it does, there's every chance we'll catch a few albeit top sides on the hop and double our confidence on each occasion to boot. No doubt the fat lady's preparing her set but the swan song's still undecided. What d'you reckon, lament or a stomping anthem to the resurgent Rs? I'd keep my options open till the last minute if I were her.
I thought Barton was one of our better players at Bolton as he has been in all of our games. He was all over the park again, the complete midfielder. I think his performance is being judged by perceptions of his personality and his earnings, not on his performance on the park, which is consisently better than anyone else is producing week in, week out.
