The strange irony of Joey Barton’s misogynistic rebrand as gammon button-pusher
Manchester City have put up their season ticket prices. And it is all the women’s team’s fault.
As far as hot takes go, Joey Barton’s one on Thursday which is summarised above is up there with the surface of the sun.
The great sage and podcaster (has anyone noticed the prestigious League Two manager of the month award taking pride of place on his shelf during his broadcasts?) posted this nugget of wisdom in response to Manchester City raising their season ticket prices by an average of five per cent across the board.
The increase is broadly in line with inflation and similar to what other clubs have been doing. But the source of ire is that City have turned a massive profit over the past year. Shock horror, a state-owned entity took over the club and they are running it like a business. Welcome to capitalism, Joey.
But Barton’s answer to this supposed injustice is to “get rid of the women’s team and redistribute those funds to the fans”. Yep, of all the sportswashing, accounting gymnastics and what Arsene Wenger called financial doping that has led City to become the profit-driven juggernaut that it is, it is the women’s team that are to blame.
This is the women’s team that will draw in excess of 45,000 supporters at the Etihad Stadium this weekend for the Manchester derby.
This is the women’s team that, when the skewed results from Arsenal and Manchester United’s men’s stadium outings are taken out of the equation, have an average attendance well in the top half of the Women’s Super League.
This is the women’s team that may well win the whole damn competition, as they are level on points with Chelsea at the top.
We know why Barton says these stupid things. He has a platform to keep oxygenated. Now that the whole management foray has fallen by the wayside (manager of the month award from March 2022 notwithstanding), he’s got a new career as gammon button-pusher and “he’s just saying what we all think” merchant.
The latest statement was accompanied by an enormous irony vacuum by way of an Oscar Wilde quote, about the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Because the price of running a women’s team is of course expensive – although not nearly as much as that of fielding a team of Erling Haaland, Jack Grealish et cetera. But the value of having a successful team of any gender is immeasurable. In schools in the south of England, City shirts and logos on schoolbags are rivalling those of United, Chelsea and Arsenal. And it is not just boys who are sporting the baby-blue hues of the badge.
They not only want to be part of the tribe that won the Treble last year for the men, they want to emulate European champions like Chloe Kelly, Alex Greenwood and Ellie Roebuck.
But let’s not let facts get in the way of Barton’s babbles. Speaking of facts, here are two: he has a daughter, who is around the age of 10 – which begs the question, why is he perpetuating the existence of an outdated, misogynistic attitude to women in sport, whether playing it or talking about it, when his own flesh and blood will be let loose in that very world before he knows it?
Here’s another fact, from his autobiography. He actually prefers Joe to Joey. The latter came about because of a typo on a teamsheet and it stuck. Imagine the size of the chip that must be on his shoulder, having to answer to a name that you don’t actually like for over two decades. No prizes for guessing whose fault that is.
