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Do me a favor, try to remember the last time you heard a Joey Barton story that was about his performance. You probably can’t because despite his long, above average career, he has gotten into trouble almost as often as he has scored goals; sometimes even managing to get into trouble when he was already under scrutiny for something else.
This morning, the Scottish FA charged the Rangers midfielder for breaching the league’s betting rules. And he didn’t just make one bet, Barton allegedly made 44 bets within a six week timeframe. The funny part is that he expected no one to notice.
Barton has until the 12th of October to respond to the charge, and he already has a hearing date set for the 27th. While he may have won the bet following Celtic’s 7-0 loss to Barcelona, Barton has ultimately lost the war.
What makes the story even funnier is when you consider Barton’s background. Not only has Barton been in trouble seemingly every year of his career, but he is already in the middle of a three week club ban due to an altercation with teammate Andy Halliday following Ranger’s 5-1 loss to Celtic last month.
Perhaps betting against them was Joey’s way of getting back at the Scottish champions. It would make sense given his erratic thought process at times. While he won the bet, Celtic lost by a whopping seven goals, he will likely lose much more money due to court costs.
After starting his professional career with Manchester City, Joey Barton moved from club to club as each manager realized they were unable to correct the bad boy’s attitude. After joining Rangers a few months ago, he and the club had high hopes with 16-1 odds that he would win Scotland's player of the year award. However, things have not gone according to plan for the journeyman, and his antics have quickly turned Rangers fans against him; a common theme throughout his career.
Will this mark the end of Joey Barton’s long professional career? History tells us no, but Rangers fans might be a little more hopeful.
