The English midfielder is yet to make a Ligue 1 appearance for Elie Baup’s side and in a friendly game against Istres, the impulsive midfielder had a little issue during the game
He was announced as calm and soothing, but one found Joey Barton totally opposite of this when Olympique de Marseille took on Istres in a friendly game. The final result of the game was 1-1 but the biggest moment of the game was the Englishman’s lunge on
the Ligue 2 side’s player, Guy-Roland Niangbo.
The 30-year-old came down really hard on the Istres man who got up quickly to confront the midfielder who then jabbed his finger against the Ivorian.
Following the game, the midfielder was thoroughly criticised in the French media with La Provence deeming Barton’s tackle as, “a real lunge on Guy-Roland Niangbo in midfield.”
Inevitably, the ‘Istreens’ were not happy Barton’s actions. However, French media has chosen not to make a big deal out of the skirmish unlike the English media that has once again leapt to the criticism of the player.
Despite seeing Barton act so rashly in a friendly game, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Olympique-de-Marseille-c40127 president, Vincent Labrune claims that he is not worried about the incident at all.
“I have no doubt in him. He is primarily a very good player, and you’ll see that a lot more than his tackles,” says the Marseille supremo.
This was Barton’s second moment of madness in his short Marseille career with the player earlier clashing with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/AEL-Limassol-c38226 goalkeeper Matias Degra in a Europa League encounter a few weeks back. Marseille take on Bordeaux in their next Ligue 1 encounter.
However, Barton is set to miss the game against Francois Gillot’s due as there are some games left to serve for his 12-game ban.
Although Barton arrived at Marseille in order to redeem his image and stay away from the constant media scrutiny in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/England-c749, it appears that the former Newcastle United man still needs to learn his lessons and needs to realise that he does not always need
to leave a trail of blood just to make a statement.
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