Discuss your views on TSF being Joey Barton on his forum page here.
For
1.
Against
19. Not played with Paolo Di Canio
TSF wrote: “When Joey Barton was waging his own war against Newcastle through Twitter before his acrimonious departure, plenty of players, including me, were quietly hoping he would stop. Especially when he began to quote Nietzsche, a man who ended up talking to his dog (Nietzsche not Barton).”
The Checklist
(The origins of these clues can be found here)
1. Is he English?
2. Is he currently married?
3. Has he played under at least 4 managers?
4. Has he had a transfer between 2 Premiership clubs?
5. Was he a Premier League player in January 2011?
6. Has he played with a group of French players at one club?
7. Has he played with a striker who refused to move unless the pass went exactly where he wanted it?
8. Did he play for one manager for a considerable amount of time who was great before losing it?
9. Has he played for a manager who lost the dressing room?
10. Does he have a friend who plays for Liverpool?
11. Might he think Harry Redknapp is the Messiah?
12. Has he appeared as a pundit? (TSF probably doesn’t do so)
13. Did he have a long term girlfriend as a younger player?
14. Had/has a strong father figure.
15. Not an Arsenal or Man City player (at end of 2010-11 season).
16. Did he play a match at some point towards the end of March or first few days of April 2011?
17. Not a keeper.
18. Has a daughter.19. He played with Paolo Di Canio –removed by public demand 20. Someone who’s got a chat about ‘another season’ coming up -see revealing tweet post
21. He’s been involved in a last day relegation battle
22. He’s played for a newly promoted Premier League club
23. Has been subject to a deadline day transfer
24. TSF is Caucasian
25. Has a good friend who is African and has played for a team in Russia
26. Has been diagnosed with depression
27. Played in the lower leagues at start of career
28. Played against Liverpool for a lower league club
29. Was one of the best players in a very successful team
30. Played for a club that got themselves in financial trouble
31. Plays the Paul Scholes role
32. Played under a captain who will go down as one of most successful in the club’s history, without having earned it
33. Played under a stand-in captain wearing a large tubi-grip with a marker pen-written ‘C’ as captain’s armband
34. Has played as captain
35. Has played for a club who promoted their assistant manager to manager (and went on to get bad results)
36. Not a Liverpool fan
37. Played in a team that won promotion to the Premiership
38. Following on from clue 21: That team got relegated due to a goal going in at the other end of the country in the dying minutes of the final game of the season
39. Clue 38 was his last game for that club
40. His wage at the time of clues 38 and 39 was the best part of £100,000 per month
41. He went on to play in the Premiership again after the relegation in clue 38
15 responses to “Joey Barton”
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Joey-Barton-got-to-shave-his-moustache-after-Newcastle-s-6-0-romp-over-Aston-Villa-article561893.html
There’s been nothing in the local press since this day to say he has married his girlfriend. He’s definitely not married.
RE: 14. Quote from Barton:
“”[My father] was more like a mate than a dad. He never taught me how to be a man; he never gave me the tools. I only realised later it’s like a line of dominoes. My granddad was never taught to express his emotions, other than not to show any sign of weakness, and that was passed down to my dad.
“I want to be a good role model and, one day, a good father to my children. Being a man is not just about standing up for yourself and saying, ‘I’m a fucking man.’ Being a man is how you deal with things; how you give your kids the tools that I’ve now got without them making the mistakes I made.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/may/04/newcastle-joey-barton-emotional-vulnerability
Is it too much of stretch to believe that TSF has misspelled Paolo and actually means Paulo leading us onto Paulo Wanchope and not Paolo Di Canio?
Baton plaed with him at City…
7. Anelka?
9. Big Sam/Shearer/Kinnear?
12. Barton as a pundit?
14. Keegan?
Is it too much of stretch to believe that TSF has misspelled Paolo and actually means Paulo leading us onto Paulo Wanchope and not Paolo Di Canio?
Barton played with him at City…
7. Anelka?
9. Big Sam/Shearer/Kinnear?
12. Barton as a pundit?
14. Keegan?
1 It’s a bit of a stretch, and 2, Wanchope wasn’t a master at winning free kicks he shouldn’t have.
Didn’t know the forum rules allowed such brllaiint posts.
I think the current article rules out Barton. Although there are many council estates in the Huyton area of Liverpool where he grew up, the area itself is one of the least ethnically diverse in the UK. Indeed having worked in the area I can confirm that it suffers from high levels of cultural racism and there is no way that he could have grown to any realistic age without being aware of racism.
“Things like that can lead to grudges, despite what is said about players not going on to the pitch with the intention of hurting each other – you only have to witness the running feud between Joey Barton and Karl Henry. ”
In today’s Guardian, pretty much rules him out, no?
From his twitter account: Joey Barton has done a lot of things Phillipe but I’ve never seen him do that! youtube.com/watch?v=QRJPC_
That rules out Barton.
I think the inclusion of Paulo is a deliberate Rosebud knowing very well at this point there are people dissecting every word. There is at least four possible a: Player’s first or last name is actually a variation on Paul and Paulo is a team nickname; b: The player in question has a Latin heritage, South American, Portuguese, Spanish or Italian; c: That the player in question wasn’t playing FOR the team, but was in fact in OPPOSITION on that particular day; d: The player is indeed Di Canio; e: The player is Wanchope but owing to a misspelling the article cannot not be changed or identified as having been a mistake.
This week’s column seems to rule out Joey Barton, given TSF isn’t very complimentary about his Twitter use…
surely at least one of his favourite songs woulld be by mozza/the smiths
TSF talks about growing up in an area that was ‘blessed with coulr blindness’. Bartons brother is in prison for murdering a man with an Ice axe in an unprovoked racist attack. Not suggesting Bartons racist and of course attitudes can change but it does not sound like a place were racism is not an issue
Hello
Not sure where to post this, but here goes. I’m surprised that, for a website which has paid so much attention to detail, there is no mention of TSF’s appearance at the Guardian’s open weekend in March this year. TSF appeared by phone link, with his voice distorted to protect his identity. However, there were a few takeaways from the event:
1. The Guardian’s chief sports editor (or someone similar) presented the session, and initially gave a talk about how the whole TSF thing was set up. Apparently one of the Guardian journalists interviewed TSF (before he was TSF) and was struck by how intelligent and well informed he was, unlike any footballer he had come across before. Now, a few of your leading candidates come across pretty thick in interviews (e.g. Andrew Johnson, who sounds like Beckham), in which case they could be ruled out.
2. While TSF’s voice was distorted, it obviously wasn’t possible to distort his accent. And from this it was evident that he is definitely from the South of the country, as there was no discernible Northern twang to his country. For example, he would say ‘graars’ and not ‘grass’ etc etc. He was absolutely not Geordie / Scouse in any way. It was a live feed and the voice was a bit computerised, but you can’t cover up the way words are pronounced (i.e. it was a Southern computerised voice, not a Northern one).
3. What was also impossible to disguise was that he was very well spoken. Whenever he was asked a question, he answered in a smart, eloquent way, which you don’t get in too many footballers. I looked up interviews of Andrew Johnson and Paul Konchesky on YouTube, and they just speak in cliche-ridden drivel and use grammatically incorrect sentences (e.g. “we was playing well” instead of “we were playing well”). TSF didn’t do this, he sounded smart.
3. He was asked lots of questions by the audience, and unfortunately I can’t remember many. I do remember though that he was asked who he thought was the best player and the most overrated player in the Premier League, to which his answers were Luka Modric and John Terry, respectively.
Overall, it was clear that 100% it was not Joey Barton or Kevin Nolan or anyone with a really Northen accent. It was also someone who can speak very well, and not in the usual footballer’s style. I’m sure there must be other readers of this website who were there at the event and can corroborate this, as well as add a few bits on what else he said.
Hope that helps.
Thanks ItsNotBarton, you should post this here: https://www.whoisthesecretfootballer.co.uk/i-am-the-secret-footballer/ which seems to the most up to date general discussion page. My money was on Johnson, but I might have to reconsider.