Kris Boyd has admitted that he thought Joey Barton was the man to end his Celtic nightmare.
Since he started out in his media career the Kilmarnock legend has known nothing but success and trophies for the hoops.
At every turn he has been faced with the sight of Scott Brown lifting trophies: eight SPL/SPFL titles, five League Cups and five Scottish Cups have been raised since 2012.
In the summer of 2016 Boydy was running around like a kid on Christmas Eve, bread wrappers on his bald head and #goingfor55 as Barton arrived at Ibrox alongside Nicky Kranjcar, Clint Hill, Pip Senderos, Josh Windass and Joey Garner.
Future England boss Mark Warburton had already brought James Tavernier, Martyn Waghorn, Andy Halliday, Wes Foderingham and Jason Holt in to form the spine of his dream team.
Boyd was on duty for the first Glasgow derby of the season. Had a Barrie McKay shot gone in at 3-1 it could have changed the course of history but as he contemplated a 5-1 defeat the Sky Sports pundit already knew that it was all over for Barton and the Warbo Revolution.
In The Sun Boyd admits:
Like most Rangers fans, I thought his signing was a real statement of intent. It was the first time in a long time that my old club had attracted such a big name.
Rangers were looking for a leader. Someone the younger players in the squad could look up to and talk to. Barton has had a lot of well-documented troubles in his time and perhaps there were some kids in that dressing room who were thinking about turning to him for help or advice.
But when it became clear he wasn’t being given the captain’s armband, that’s when things started to go wrong. When Neil Warnock brought him to QPR, he immediately made him his captain.
Mark Warburton had no intention of doing the same at Rangers and I think Barton resented that. I think he still resents that. Yet you don’t need the armband to prove yourself as a leader. Barton could still have influenced the dressing room.
Instead he chose to question authority and undermine everything Warburton and his players were trying to achieve. I’m led to believe that from almost day one he was sniping away in the background, complaining about this and that.
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I’m led to believe that Warbo missed out on the England job and that Barton, Hill and McKay could be joined by Holt and Halliday at Fleetwood Town next season.