Is Joey Barton Really A Celtic Fan?

Midfielder, motormouth, self proclaimed Twitter prophet and opinionated scouser Joey Barton may be walking on some very thin ice as this weekend’s Old Firm derby approaches.

The epic clash between Rangers and Celtic could be considered as the first of its kind since Rangers were liquidated and started again in the fourth tier of Scottish football. For the fans, it’s pretty safe to say that nothing has changed in this fierce derby between two hated enemies who exhibit one of the most ruthless rivalries in World football.

It isn’t just the fans who get wound up for this game, the players themselves, local and foreign get fired up to destroy their enemies and through the years this game has seen on-pitch fighting, tackles that would make Roy Keane blush and of course, an abundance of red cards.

With all that being said, there are some footballers who you need on your side for that type of game, a player who walks that thin line between Bobby Moore’s tackle on Pele and Harald Schumacher’s ‘tackle‘ on Patrick Battiston, one such player is Rangers new signing Joey Barton but the question the ‘Gers fans should be asking is what side is he really on? Let’s take a look at the evidence behind the accusations that Barton is indeed a fan of the Hoops.

He Said It

Unfortunately for the Twitter-machine that is Barton, in-between his quotes from Nietzsche and Aristotle, the new Rangers midfielder confessed on social media back in 2012 that he was indeed a Celtic fan as a result of his Catholic allegiances, or at least so he says. 

“Being Joseph Anthony and having gone to Catholic schools, I didn’t really have a choice when it came to it. So I looked out for one of the teams when the Old Firm was on. I’ve said on Twitter, amongst other things, ‘I’m a Celtic fan’.”

He Was Over the Moon When His Son Bought a Kit

If your child has a healthy collection of different strips, it can be acceptable, providing that they are young enough to have not yet have pinned their colours to the mast when supporting a club and that they have a healthy number of foreign shirts in their collection.

When Joey Barton’s son bought a Celtic kit, Barton once again incriminated himself on Twitter, if the tweet about the shirt itself isn’t enough, the #hailhail hashtag will be enough to curdle the blood of any Rangers fan out there, especially when it has come from their own midfield general.

Lets try this again. On the plus side the little man has a another kit to add to his growing collection #hailhail pic.twitter.com/MywuL6UrCx

— Joseph Barton (@Joey7Barton) June 17, 2014

Obviously the green side of Glasgow are lapping all of this up and we can’t say we blame them. Barton claims that his statements about being a Celtic fan were just a bit of a laugh and that he knows exactly where his loyalty lies:

“You have to take that in jest. I don’t think anybody will have any doubt about my allegiances when we play Celtic.”

We’re not sure whether anyone will be looking at the funny side of anything this weekend as the Old Firm takes place at Celtic Park this weekend and you can bet your arse that Joey will be the subject to some ruthless abuse from the Bhoys, in an effort to wind him up, the question however, is which fans will be the ones hurling the abuse?

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