Where is Barton

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Not only disapeared off the first team, Not found on the bench, bypassed the reserves. Now seems to have disapeared from this BBs. Have we sold him? Does anyone want to buy him? Is he still a burden on the NUFC wage bill. He seemed to go very quickly from regular 1st team to Mr anonymous.

Anybody know where he is, does he turn up for training?

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2001

Answers

Last seen sipping margeritas with Lord Lucan and Shergar! ;o{)

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2001

Kinda feel sorry for the guy. Players usually go from regular 1st team to not even fit to train with the U-17s in 3 or 4 months but Barton seem to have accomplish that in a matter of weeks. Although I don't really like seeing him play, the way he's being treated smacks of another NUFC great PR machine at work. After all, he might be a shitty player but was a great servant to the club. And of the players, isn't he the highest qualified coach among them? Surely, NUFC can stick him with the U-17s and U-19s to help in their development. He might still want to play but I'm sure until he finds a team to take him in surely he wouldn't mind helping out with the younger players.

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2001

The whole right back thing is bizarre as we don't seem to know for sure whether Griffin is ill or not. Surely, if Griffin wasn't fit on Saturday, then Warren should have been on the bench. I guess had Hughes been injured, then you could shuffle around with O'B, Dabs and Distin, but even so, it's bizarre that neither Griff or Barton are in the frame. I can only put Hughes's selection in fromt of either of them down to his being less injury-prone than Griff and younger than Barton, therefore more likely to be a regular, long-term player in the back four. Having said that, you'd really expect one or the other of Griff and Barton to be on the bench??

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2001

Actually Dougal, I think Hughes has acquitted himself very well at RB. As he's less likely to make it in central defence, then perhaps both he and YBR see this as his most likley position to succeed?? At least you can depend on him (most of the time).

-- Anonymous, November 07, 2001

Interesting - I didn't think Hughes was much better than adequate at RB on Saturday and prefer him as CB. The truth is, Saturday was one of those games where the team played so well as a whole that Barton, Griff or Scruffy McGuffie would probably have looked decent at RB. Still, useful to have a player in Hughes who can slot in anywhere across the back four if required.

-- Anonymous, November 07, 2001


the subs bench was unbalanced on Saturday, I guess because of the concern over Robert's health. Bernard was in as cover which meant Shola wasn't in so we had Lua2 covering for right midfield and all forward positions.

Barton would only get in as a sub if he was viewed as cover for centre of defence and as full back. Elliot/Distin/Hughes can all play centre half and Elliot/Hughes/Bernard/O'Brien would cover full back positions so its difficult to make a case for Barton. It is a shame cos the guy has always been one of my favourites.

-- Anonymous, November 07, 2001


It's a difficult one what to do RE subs. Personally I would be happy if we had Shola, Lua-Lua, one midfielder, Harper and one defender. I think it would make most sense to have a rb as sub and not Distin. I know that Bobby wants to run the rule over Distin but if Hughes gets injured we have no one to cover. Whereas with a rb on the bench we could easily reshuffle with Hughes switching to the left or centre if need be.

-- Anonymous, November 07, 2001

It's interesting because I adore Hughes and have to say that the best I can say is that he is as good as any of our other right backs this season but not necessarily good enough in the long term. Having said that, he has played three games at right back since about April 2000, so it's probably a bit early to make an assessment.

-- Anonymous, November 07, 2001

PS. Screach, I've said this before, but from his personal point of view, he might have been better off taking Tigana's offer up at Fulham: I imagine he and Goma would have been the first choice CH pairing and, if it developed week-in, week-out, would have turned into a tidy partnerhip.

-- Anonymous, November 07, 2001

Hughes IMO has the ability to make a top class RB and I'm confident he'll prove me right. He's quick, brainy, brave and self confident but best of all is his tackling. Remember he's only 20!
For me Hughes has the shirt it's up to Griffin to take it off him - has he got the stuff?

Where the hell has Barton gone? this is very queer.

-- Anonymous, November 07, 2001



....you have to believe there has been a falling out with BR here. nothing else makes sense.

-- Anonymous, November 07, 2001

Well, latest news from Spain suggests that Andy Griffin isn't helping to make himself flavour of the month...

-- Anonymous, November 07, 2001

do you thnik Oldham need a fullback ?

-- Anonymous, November 07, 2001

This gets more and more like those Los Angeles tar pits - there's very little can be seen on the surface, but it's a seething mess underneath.

I wonder what stinking bubble is about to work it's way to the surface and shower us with all kinds of smelly stuff this time ?

-- Anonymous, November 07, 2001


The Official Warren Barton Spotters' Society issues the following press release:

"The Official Warren Barton Spotters' Society (OWBSS) is pleased to announce that Warren has been spotted on the photograph of the Newcastle United players taken on the steps of Sir John Hall's mansion in Marbella prior to the dinner that had been arranged in the latter's honour. The OWBSS also notes that neither of the other right backs at Newcastle United appears on this photograph. "

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2001



Anyone reckon it's to do with the fact that he said he was fit to play at West Ham and clearly wasn't? In which case, YBR would be quite right to drop him and would certainly explain his non- appearance in the reserves.

As for the right-back berth - got to disagree Dan. Hughes has been the perfect replacement. His distribution is an example to Griffin and Barton, his positional play needs a little work but he's head and shoulders above Barton and Griffin so far this season. He's quietly going about doing a great job which is why no one has been up in arms of late about the defence. I said to Dougal in the Strawberry after the game that it's clearly helping Dabs and Obrien as well - because they know they can take the ball forward and Hughes will slot into the CH position and do a very good job - confidence building all- round.

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2001


Agreed min, Hughes has looked the part at righ back. Distribution is what it's all about nowadays. A good pass down the flanks can be the difference between opening up a defence or leaving your defence exposed.

All too often Barton would knock it long and leave our forwards trundling back. I admit he was made to look worse by the lack of movement up front, which has been solved by a certain Welsh Whippet, but Barton's distribution has generally always been awful. My passing is a hell of a lot better than his.

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2001


Shut yer face. Barton's lush.

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2001

I've always thought of Hughes as a 7 out of 10 player: rarely does anything spectacular but rarely makes any f...k ups either which makes him a fairly valuable player. On the other hand, though it's hard to believe now, this time last season, we were saying the same things about Hughes as we are now saying about O'Brien. He had a definite slump in form, which was probably due to having whoever was fit from Goma, Marcelino and Steve Caldwell as his partner in central defence as well as being played too often. I hope this serves as a warning to Bobby about keeping the Dabs and O'Brien partnership as his first choice partnership while giving O'Brien the occasional break.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2001

My desire is to have defenders who can defend, and attackers who can attack.

It's great to see Shearer clear a corner with one of his bullet headers but I'd prefer he scored from a corner at the other end.

Similarly I would be ecstatic if we had boring defenders who could do nothing but defend. Arsenal are the bench mark for this. Dixon and Winterburn are tediously boring fullbacks. Keown and Adams very occasionally make their presence felt at the other end for corners but basically all four of them are defenders, nothing else.

Aaron Hughes was the first player we had in ages who fitted that role. He never tries to dribble out of defence, would happily put the ball in the stand if that was the safest option and positionally seems more defensively aware than any of the rest of our defence. O'Brien has joined him in the being similarly aware. I have never had this confidence in Barton (or Dabizas, but he has other combative strengths) who has always seemed to unsure of actually what he should be doing, and has never been a natural full back.

At 22 I see Aaron Hughes becoming a Frank Clark/Davy Craig type. Here with us for ever, churning out at worst 7/10 performances but ever dependable. I think he's great, although I won't be rushing to get the porno calendar as per Dougal/Ciara !

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2001


Can't see what'srong with having players like AS who can defend well at our corners, AND score goals at the other end. It's all about making 1 + 1 = 2.1

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2001

Barton spotted again: http://www.nufc.co.uk/99_00/news/011113b.htm

If you can't be arsed to look, he's been to Cragside to open a school technology department. Bless his heart.

-- Anonymous, November 13, 2001


Barton is back in the squad tomorrow! Bobby praises his attitude highly and says that he couldn't have set a better example. Of Griffin he says:

"Andy hadn't played for five weeks and he suffered cramp in both calves for the Reserves on Monday night. His calves were rock hard and he walked off like a duck.

"We wanted him to train yesterday but he missed it because his baby is in hospital and his wife is ill.

"So I told Andy to stay at home and look after them."

It never rains but it pours, does it?

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2001


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