Andrew Smith: Rangers' Joey Barton's bluster becomes a turn-off

Joey Barton, has been buried by the rubbish that he utters. Picture: SNS.

Barton produced lengthy and meandering treatises on any number of subjects, barely stopping to take a breath as his time in therapy and his philosophy studies framed five-minute-solid verbal volleys.

We forgave that in being seduced by his mountain of comment. The lids had not been placed over the eyes of one colleague, though. “Half of what he just said in there was utter rubbish,” he lamented.

That is how it is with Joey Barton. Ultimately, you can go half the way with how he conducts himself because there is often truth and wit in the bluster that is force 10, but there comes a point when his narcissistic, Messianic tendencies become complete turn-offs.

Under the intense spotlight he has been placed in Scotland – a primitive land, he as good as suggested in interviews, obsessed with Celtic and Rangers to the exclusion of all else, and where he, despite slumming it, has struggled to clean up the play of those around him – Barton, frankly, has been buried by the  rubbish that swirls out of him.

The 34-year-old has undoubtedly been suspended for a month following his all-too-lippy lancing of manager Mark Warburton so a severance package can be sorted out. It might then be handy timing for Rangers that it has emerged he allegedly broke the SFA rules governing players’ betting through placing a wager on Celtic’s game with Barcelona last week. Indeed, even the argument that kicked off with Andy Halliday in training last Thursday that precipitated the events that will surely see Barton head back south could be considered timely for the club considering his negligible impact for his £20,000-a-week wedge.

Ultimately, only with his loudmouth tendencies and the furnace-like heat this has generated has Barton lived up to the reputation with which he arrived in Scotland. Handily for him, his autobiography is just out, which has been accompanied by Barton providing soul-baring and snarky soundbites to media outlets down south.

From his book and the press conducted for it, we have discovered if he had his time again he probably wouldn’t come to Rangers. Also that he thinks he was wanted by  Celtic in the summer – later rubbished by Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell as Barton being “had” by an agent. There was the usual shooting-from-the-hip on favourite topics such as the management of England, with Barton claiming he would be better than current incumbent Sam Allardyce or predecessor Roy Hodgson.

With Joey it always seems there is joshing, jabbing and jingoism of the personal kind. And, sometimes as with his Guardian interview, he gives himself away. “I’ve come up making a bold statement about the champions of Scotland – saying we can overthrow them. I’ve said that the retired captain of Scotland [Scott Brown] is not actually that good. I don’t think he’s in the same league as me. People have gone bang [Barton smacks his fist into his palm]. They are waiting for me to fall. I had to hit the ground playing like Lionel Messi to stand any chance.

“I’ve never played like Messi in my career. So we’ve got the introspection of the media up here – and on the other side you’ve got someone as strong-headed as me, someone who knows their profession deeply. Football is my art form and I’ve gone: ‘OK. This is not the worst painting I’ve ever done. It’s not vintage but it’s not the worst.’ I’ve got people who I don’t think have seen any decent art in I don’t know however many years critiquing me. Now everything in me wants to go: ‘What the f**k do you know?’”

What we do know is that Barton can paint a vulgar picture.