Joey Barton has spent his weekend brushing up on his literary skills at the Cheltenham Literary Festival.
With the fourth week of his Sevco ban expected to be followed by another seven days off on full pay the midfielder was down in horse racing territory promoting his latest book ‘No Nonsense: The Autobiography.’
Barton’s former team-mates spent their Friday evening in Inverness before getting the overnight bus back to Glasgow while their highest paid colleague prepared to plug his book to another audience.
With the state-of-the-art training facilities at Murray Park out of bounds the former Burnley and QPR ace has turned his attention to dog walking, mountain climbing and improving his golf game.
Sevco have still to comment on the nature of the indiscretion that earned him a ban but with no club fine it can be assumed that it was of a minor nature.
Barton could quietly have been isolated within the club after some dire displays but his suspension has taken on a new dimension as the club attempts to ignore the elephant in the room with little success.
The incredible performances of Andy Halliday carries little interest for BT Sport and Sky Sports advertisers with non-Scottish based broadcasters only interest at Ibrox being in what Barton does next.
By suspending the midfielder on full pay a circus has developed much greater than there would be if the £25,000-a-week midfielder had been quietly dropped from the side.
The highlight of last week’s circus was the intervention of James Traynor on Mark Warburton’s media conference which was showcased by Sky Sports News complete with Warbo being ushered out of the room.
Unfortunately for the club Barton has kept quiet on the reasons for his suspension with the veteran midfielder well aware that a word out of place could see his contract terminated.
Some comments about the England team was as lively as things got in Cheltenham tonight with Gloucestershire Live website reporting Barton as saying: “We go to major tournaments and just seem to want to get home with reputations intact and until that is addressed I can’t see us winning anything.
“There are less English players in our major teams and less English players in the Champions League, getting to the latter stages of the number one club competition so that also decreases your chances of doing well on the international stage.”
With Barton playing it by the book the ball is back in Sevco’s court with their highest earner enjoying plenty of leisure time on full wages as his former team-mates slog away at Murray Park.
