I agree that Wraren has been playing like poo and should be replaced by Griffin but I'm getting very uncomfortable about the abuse he's getting here and elsewhere. There were loads of knackers on Sunday so shouldn't the abuse be spread around a bit more? I would just hate it to get like it was a few years back...

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2001

Answers

He's hit a consistent vein of crapness. Most of the others just had an off day.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2001

i moan about him under my breath, but outwardly he's in black and white so i'll give him all my support

i wasn't very clever at school, with encouragement from my dad i just about passed my exams if he'd stood back and called me a useless twat then i would have never passed

wearing black and white : support them

anything else is counter productive

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2001

Throughout years of poor defending there has been one common denominator. I agree that Barton had had little chance to gel with the constant upheaval of the back four but sometimes it is down to the indiviual.

This season what has Griffin done wrong? If we had nothing better sitting there ready on the sidelines it would be easier to accept. But as Griffin is fit for a spell and in good form when he has played, can you justify Barton's inclusion. Barton is suspended soon after 5 yellows so hopefully Griffin can get in and prove us right.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2001

There's 2 Warren Bartons, there's the one bought by Keegan and nurtured to full crapness by Dalglish. Then there's Bartinho, the one who not so long ago was being hailed as the model of tenacity and 110% effort, and who showed us he knew a few tricks and could even cross a ball.

At the moment he's not playing well and there's few people would think it's fair that Andy Griffin is behind him in the pecking order. He looked the worst of a bad bunch on Sunday, but that's because he saw more of the ball than the bottlers like Speed and Marcelino, and Nobby for that matter. I honestly think Speed is one of the real obstacles to this team moving on. Rob Lee's not going to be a regular and Griff will be 1st choice right back soon, but Speed is a virtual ever present. If he wasn't able to head a ball, what would Gary Speed's reputation be based on? I'd rather see Acuna and Dyer as the first choice in central midfield (when we've got some fit forwards), and if this Lee Clark rumour has anything in it all the better. Flog Speed. Keep Lee for his leadership and out of respect. Keep Barton as he'll play in a number of positions and isn't always as bad as he is at the moment. But get rid of Speed.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2001

The Sunday Sun carried an article on Griffin in which they reckoned he isn't presently 100% fit - carrying some sort of knock.

I'm hoping that's the only reason he hasn't played in the last couple of games.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2001

Barton has had a number of excellent performances this season, and justifiably IMHO rec'd MotM a number of times. However, over the last few weeks, his form has dipped alarmingly (many might say back to normal but I wouldn't be one of them).

Clearly, something is wrong. YBR's been around in football for longer than many of us have been on this earth, so I guess he should know what he's doing. If it was up to me, I'd drop rest Braton and bring in Griffin and can't see why YBR doesn't do this - unless (a) Griff has blotted his copybook somewhere or (b) YBR believes the best we way sort out WB is to let him play thru his cr@pness. Mind, it would take a strong character on WB's behalf to continue to play poorly and not lose even more confidence.

Gut feel - he should be rested against City.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2001

NO, I'm not having this at all.

Warren Barton has NEVER been a top Premiership player in his time with us. He has always had appalling games, he has consistently had bad games, occasionally he has been average, I'd guess he has played well once or twice, but then so would I in 150 games. (If anyone tries to tell me how brilliantly he played at home to a first division side in a Cup match then I laugh at your ambition).

For a while there were quite a few players who epitomised we were aiming to low. Ketsbaia was the bets example, most of Dalglish's boys, Barton, Dabizas, Speed are all triers with limited talent. A number have been rooted out, the rest should know their days are numbered.

They aren't recent stories but Barton has supplied two magical moments. The first was a league game about three or four years ago. He had pushed forward into the opposition (Everton ?) half and the ball went out for a throw to us. Warren ran to take it quickly. There was no Everton player near, but unfortunately no Newcastle player either. He started to throw the ball and realised there was no one around. The ball fell out of his hands and dropped at his feet. He went to pick it up, realised it would be a hand ball. He went to kick it and realised it would be an offence. He had to just stand and wait for an Everton player to come across while he stood waiting in embarrassment.

At the Leazes end Shak rolled the ball out to him at right back, he went to trap it and the ball rolled under his foot and into touch. Next time Shaka got the ball he went to roll it out again and the whole (I mean whole) of the Leazes end went 'no'. This was followde a plit second later by laughter as we all realised how funny it was.

I could cope with little things like this if the rest of the time he'd been Cafu but he hasn't he's just hopeless. If he didn't give 100% he'd have been hounded out of the place years ago. Effort is not enough in my books. To paraphrase "Warren Barton you are one of the weakest links piss off"

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2001

MacBeth that was very harsh.

But bloody funny

I remember the time when after a usual poor performance he was fouled and lay on the ground. There were a number of fans (myself not included) that were chanting "Off, Off, Off" not at the player that had fouled Barton but at the unfortunate player lying on the ground.

Poor (or should that be rich) Bugga, gives 100% but definetly a 'C'Class player.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2001

Martin & Macbeth are right. It's unfortunate but as someone in this months Mag said we may never be able to measure the damage caused by TSM. I'd love it if we bought Clarkie back & sold Speed for a similar price, the scary thing is that someone once valued Gary Speed at 1x Lee Clark + 1x David Ginola + 500,000 x £1. Now Gary Speed has his good points, a trier, good engine & great heading ability. Replace David Batty with him in 1995/6 & he'd be an asset but for me Acuna does as good a job & he came a lot cheaper.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2001

Now do not start me on Gary Speed !

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2001

We blast them for not trying, we blast them for not being good enough. Fact is we're pretty much stuck with them for the rest of this season. Agree Barton is no world beater. Agree he's having a horrid patch right now and should be rested if Griffin is fit. Acuna certainly proves that being a bit vertically challenged is not always a hindrance to winning aerial battles, so I have a hard time buying that excuse about Griff. However, we could certainly do with more of our players showing the kind of effort, commitment, and spirit Barton has consistently shown. That's precisely why the Charltons, Evertons, Bradfords, Birminghams etc keep beating us. They don't exactly put out 11 world class players, but they do have commitment and effort. Right now, and until the end of this season, that all I ask of our players. Anyone who doesn't want to graft can get lost. Hopefully this transfer nonsense is decided by summer and Bobby can try to get on with bringing in the players he wants.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2001

This Friday (16th) is the deadline which the EU have imposed. Fifa and Uefa must agree on proposals to be made to the EU. Agreement has apparently been reached on 6 out of 7 proposals with the players organisation objecting to the last point about players having to see out their contracts yet clubs can sell them whenever.

Something may be sorted out before the transfer deadline day in England and it is then that we will see some changes.

I'd be quite happy to see changes in preparation for next season.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2001

I hate to see us trashing individual players, and indeed have defended many of them on here at different times. However, I feel confident that few, if any, contributors on here would take their written criticism along to SJP and verbally abuse the players.

The harsh reality is that Barton, Speed, Dabizas, Gallagher, and Lee (these days) should not/no longer be first choice, frontline players for NUFC - while they are it is highly unlikely that we will achieve anything.

I would also include in that list Marcelino (his Charlton performance should mark his very last in a b&w shirt), Cordone, and Hamilton, and now have a growing unease with Gavilan, Bassedas and LuaLua.

That list represents half the first team squad - and there's the rub - too much mediocrity.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2001

.....not to mention a staggering £23M+ outlay, much of whick was in the last 4 years. Bliddy hell!

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2001

Floridean on his comeback the other day hit the nail on the head, In the reign of KK the weakest links were Barton and Peacock , majority of the fans can see that Barton has not improved and is responsible for PPP that invariably lead to goals.

Never been mentioned by any of the football experts,just watch Barton next time , he is the inventor and sole user of the underlap in the Premier. I have yet to see any other fb/wb carry out this type of tactic, Charlton on Sunday displayed this talent and I have it still on video , so if you are interested Bobby/ or Show waddyworth>> He receives/collects ball in full back area in his own half, he always moves inside,then passes to Utd player out wide, not being in a position to overlap on the outside he continues his charge into a non effective area , the result of this ongoing saga is thus 1..He is stranded , left gap down lhs for quick break

2..Limited the options of player receiving ball who has to work inside

3..One of the midfielders should be hitting the channel-covering back!

4..Shearer/Amoebi cannot come off their marker , Warren is immobile

taking up their space,if they did cannot lay off to wing, no-one!!!

5..Body language on ball - Baresi alongside him would panic.

Class players play with their head, make space , good players combine basic skill and maximum effort , journeymen do the simple thing week

in week out, keep the manager happy until they are exposed in Europe.

And then there are plugs , think they can play , think again and wise

up , the paying public will not take any more ,more effort in the

local parks.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2001

I have previously noticed Barton's tendency when playing RB to frequently move inside Buff, even though he is right-footed. I recently picked this up in a game (Coventry?) where he continually gave the ball away through poor left-footed distribution - often as you suggest attempting to pass left-footed to a colleague on the right wing after having taken the ball inside.

I have to say I also noticed in the Charlton game several wild runs through the inside right channel, causing confusion to his colleagues, and leaving the RB position wide open.
And then, of course, there was Marcelino ..........

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2001

buff, that's got me in stitches. comment of the week definitely.

"Baresi alongside him would panic"

ha ha ha ha ha! ;)))

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2001

Glad you also had Barton on the web-cam Clarky.the tech staff must be aware, must they?, I have misgivings at times about the set-up.

As for Marcellino, he would have been a nonentity in the Glasgow Ice Cream Wars, refuse to discuss the imposter, one good game on TV and he is in, Also I am not convinced that AAron Hughes is a central defender, calm down dougal!!, full back or holding role in midfield, with playing three at the back and providing the other 2 are quality he could be the last man and play away there.

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2001

Hughes is either a sweeper if we play three centre halves, or he's the one who gets the faster more mobile of the opposing forwards in a pairing. He has pace the pace that only Howey has had in recent years, and the concentration that only Frank Clark had.

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2001

It's great when defenders can get forward to assist attacks, it is NOT there job though. Just as its great for Shearer to clear corners it isn't what his primary purpose is.

I want us to have a Seaman/Dixon/Winterburn/Adams/Keown defence. Dixon and Winterburn are not overlapping full backs, they are dull methodically defensive players who can occasionally get involved in the opposition half.

Aaron Hughes has the same miserly view of his role. He rarely travles with the ball, will happily pass it back 40 yards rather than risk anything, he is totally risk averse. Andy Griffin has shown the concentration necessary to cope with classy wingers. He has shown he is prepared to follow a player everywhere to nullify him. Again a single minded dedicaton to defending. He has a 'if in doubt boot him out' approach to opposing forwards, spot on.

So that's 2 of them sorted. Next we need Tony Adams. We are all desperate for Stevie Caldwell to be that man. Tall, hard, aggressive, our very own well loved super donkey. I worry that we have all fallen for his aggressive nature without questioning his positioning etc, but amongst what we have he's the great white hope, until his whiter than white wee bro' comes along.

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2001

Still need a left back though. Quinn looks off the pace in EPL. But are there any other British Left Backs?

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2001

I'd settle for Quinn at the minute. Otherwise we are talking silly money for someone like Michael Ball.

Quinn just needs a bit of protection so he is not faced with two attackers all the time!

-- Anonymous, February 14, 2001